t:t 





UNCLE SAM 



BY 



ALBERT MATTHEWS 



UNCLE SAM 



BY 
ALBERT MATTHEWS 



Reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 

Volume XIX 



WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS 

THE DAVIS PRESS 

1908 



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1908.] Vnde Sam. 21 



UNCLE SAM. 

BY ALBERT MATTHEWS. 

Arising in obscure ways, often originating in derision or 
abuse or satire, sometimes repudiated by those to whom 
they are applied, at other times adopted in spite of the 
ridicule, the origin of nicknames is singularly elusive, and 
there are few words or phrases of which it is more difficult 
to trace the histor3^ Moreover, nicknames are almost 
invariably associated in the popular mind with some person 
or place or thing having a similar name; and so a problem 
already difficult is made doubly so by the necessity of 
attempting to obtain information about very obscure persons. 
The history of nicknames usually follows one general course : 
those who, at the time of origin, perhaps know the real 
explanation, fail to record it, and then, a generation or so 
having passed by and the true origin having been forgotten, 
a series of guesses is indulged in. 

In Yankee, Brother Jonathan, and Uncle Sam, we Ameri- 
cans have perhaps more than our fair share of national 
sobriquets; and we are, so far as I am aware, the only nation 
to the government of which a sobriquet has been given in 
distinction from the people. For while Uncle Sam has occa- 
sionally been applied to us as a nation, its use is almost wholly 
restricted to our government. What has been said above 
about the popular tendency to connect nicknames with 
persons is well illustrated in all of our national sobriquets. 
When the history of Yankee comes to be written, it will 
be found necessary to consider a famous pirate who was 
the terror of the Spanish Main in the seventeenth century; 
a negro who hved in South Carolina in 1725; several mem- 
--^ers of a family which wa,s well knowTi in Cambridge, Mass- 
achusetts, during the eighteenth century; the Yankoos, 



22 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

an imaginary tribe of Indians invented in 1775 for the 
purpose of explaining a word which then first came into 
general use in this country; and Yankee as a family name. 
The history of Brother Jonathan involves an inquiry into 
an alleged English poet of the seventeenth century; a 
London coffee-house of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries named Jonathan's; Jonathan Hastings, a tanner 
who lived in Cambridge early in the eighteenth century; 
Jonathan Carver, the noted traveller; and Jonathan Trum- 
bull, the distinguished Governor of Connecticut.'^ And 
in Uncle Sam we are confronted with a similar problem — 
this time an alleged contractor and inspector named Samuel 
Wilson, who lived in Troy during the first half of the nine- 
teenth century. The story connecting Uncle Sam with 
Samuel Wilson first appeared in print, so far as is known, 
in 1842, and no example of the term earlier than 1840 has 
until now ever been cited. ^ 

Before considering the Samuel Wilson story, let us see 
what the history of the term Uncle Sam has actually been. 
For sixty-six years the statement has been repeated that 
the nickname arose at the outbreak of the war of 1812, 
varied occasionally by the assertion that the term originated 
during the Revolutionary War. Both statements are 
incorrect, as the term is not known to have been used until 
the war of 1812 was half over; but the nickname certainly 
did originate during that war.^ Moreover, for a year or so 



* See Brother Jonathan, Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 
VII, 94-122. 

* "She was called Catalina, and, like aU other vessels in that trade, except the 
Ayacucho, her papers and colors were from Uncle Sam" (Two Years before the Mast, 
1841, p. 168). This extract is quoted in Farmer and Henley's Slang and its Ana- 
logues (1904), where it is dated 1835. The preface to Dana's book is dated July, 
1840. Uncle Sam was first recognized in 1848 in Bartlett's Dictionary of Ameri- 
canisms, whence it found its way into the 1860 edition of Worcester and into subsequent 
dictionaries. 

' The term does not appear in the following books, where, if known at all or in 
general use, it would be certain to ttirn up: J. K. Pavilding, The Diverting History 
of John Bull and Brother Jonathan, by Hector Bull-us, 1812; The Beauties of 
Brother Bull-us, by his loving Sister BuU-a, 1812 (a reply to Paulding's book); 
W. Dunlap, Yankee Chronology, 1812; The Wars of the Gulls, 1812; Paulding, The 
United States and England, 1814; The Reviewers Reviewed, 1815; D. Humphrey, 
The Yankey in England, 1815. The first appearance of the term in a book was in 
The Adventures of Uncle Sam, 1816. See p. 40, below. Besides these books, 
political skits (written largely in Biblical language) were not uncommon in the 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 23 

it was avoided by those who favored the war, and was 
employed only by those who opposed the war. Hence the 
term was at first apparently used somewhat derisively. 
In order to understand how this could have been the case, 
it will be necessary to glance at some of the manifestations 
of the war. 

We are all so familiar with the causes, events, and con- 
sequences of the war of 1812, that it is unnecessary to dwell 
upon them here; yet some passages from contemporary 
newspapers will perhaps give us a more vivid impression 
of the thoughts and feelings engendered by that contest 
than will the formal writings of learned historians. An 
editorial note headed with the historic words "Era of Good 
Feelings," which appeared in the Columbian Centinel of 
July 12, 1817, began as follows: "During the late Presiden- 
tial Jubilee many persons have met at festive boards, in 
pleasant converse, whom party politics had long severed. 
We recur with pleasure to all the circumstances which 
attended the demonstrations of good feelings" (p. 2-3). 
To us of the present day, who take our politics more calmly, 
it is not easy to understand the furor and turmoil which 
characterized the war of 1812. But if poHtical warfare 
nowadays is less abusive and vituperative than it was a 
century ago, as is certainly the case, yet also it is distinctly 
less picturesque. Is it possible that in the matter of nick- 
names, we Americans have lost our inventive capacity? 
What has there been in the past decade to match "Father of 
his Country," "Old Hickory," "Mill Boy of the Slashes," 
"Old Man Eloquent," "Tippecanoe," "Old Bullion," 
"Rail-sphtter," "Plumed Knight," and scores of other 
sobriquets that will readily occur to all? It is true that 
the nicknames which were so commonly bestowed during 
the war of 1812 were chiefly satirical; but on that very 
account they are the more valuable for our present purpose. 

newspapers. See Columbian Centinel (Boston), November 7. 1812, p. 1-3; The 
Yankee (Boston), August 13, 1813, p. 2-2; Portsmouth Oracle, February 26. 1814. 
p. 3-1; Columbian Centinel, March 2, 1814, p. 1-2. While John Bull, Brother 
Jonathan, and John Codline (that is. New Englanders) figure in these skits, there 
is no allusion to Uncle Sam. It may be add^d that in his Jonathan Bull and Mary 
Bull, written in 1821, Madison makes no mention of Uncle Sam. 



24 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

In a speech delivered in Congress on January 24, 1812, 
David R. Williams said: ''Sir, I feel a deadly hate against 
Great Britain. Yes, sir, if the red artillery of Heaven were 
in my hands, I'd soon drive the fast anchored isle from 
her moorings."* Immediately Williams was nicknamed 
"Mr. Thunderbolt Williams," "thunder-and-lightning 
Williams," "Jupiter Williams," "thunder & lightning David ;" 
and his words lingered in the popular mind for fourteen 
years at least .^ War with England was declared June 18, 
1812. In a proclamation dated June 26, Governor Caleb 
Strong of Massachusetts spoke of "the nation from which 
we are descended, and which for many generations has 
been the bulwark of the religion we profess."^ At once 
•i-* "the bulwark of our religion" and "Bulwark Strong" 
became bywords in the war papers.'^ In a speech dehvered 
in Congress on January 5, 1813, Josiah Quincy said: 

"An armistice was proposed by them. It was refused by us. 
It was acceded to by the American general, on the frontiers. 

It was rejected by the cabinet They renewed hostihties. 

They rushed upon Canada. Nothing would satisfy them but 
blood. The language of their conduct is that of the giant, in 
the legends of infancy. 

Fee, Faw, Foo, Fum, 

I smell the blood of an Englishman, 

Dead, or alive, I will have some."^ 



* View of the State of Parties in the United States (second edition, 1812), p. 159. 
The author of this worlc gives January 21, as the date of Williams's speech. The 
true dalte is January 24. See the Connecticut Courant of February 5, 1812, p. 2-3. 

* See Connecticut Courant, January 12, 1813, p. 3-4; Portsmouth Oracle, June 26, 

1813, p. 2-5; Columbian Centinel, August 7, 1813, p. 2-4; New York Herald, August 31, 

1814, p. 1-5; The Yankee in London, 1826, p. 96. "General David R. WilHams," 
said the Portsmouth Oracle of January 8, 1814, "commonly called thunder and 
lightning David, has resigned his command, without sinking the fast anchored 
island" (p. 4-1). In the Lansinghurgh Gazette of December 27, 1814, appeared 
the following: " 'Thunder & Ughtning' Williams, formerly a member of Congress, 
and lately for about a month a brigadier-general, is elected Governor of South 
Carolina" (p. 3-3). 

* New England Palladium, June 30, 1812, p.l. 

^Even as late as March 15, 1823, the expression was still remembered. See Niles' 
Register of that date, XXIV, 32. 

^Columbian Centinel, February 3, 1813, p. 2-1. See also Quincy's Speeches 
delivered in the Congress of the United States (lS74),pp. 389, 390. In Harper's 
Encyclopedia of United States History (1902) will be found reproduced a caricature 
of Quincy, described as follows: 

"In one caricature he was called 'Josiah the First,' and had upon his breast, aa 
the decoration of an order, crossed codfishes, in allusion to his persistent defence 



1908.] 



Uncle Sam. 25 



The man who later was commemorated by Lowell in an 
essay entitled "A Great Public Character," was, during 
the war of 1812, known as "Mr. Fum"^ or "Orator Fum,"^® 
and we read of "the degrading doctrine inculcated by 
'fee, fo, % ftim' federalists."" John Adams was "Duke 
of Braintree "^'^ and "Old Brimborion."^'* John Armstrong, 
who was made Secretary of War in January, 1813, was 
nicknamed "Duke of Newburgh," in allusion to the famous 
Newburgh Addresses of 1783.^^ Jefferson was called "Tall 



of the New England fisheries. He was also called 'King' because of his political 
domination in New England. In the caricature his coat was scarlet, his waistcoat 
brown, his breeches light green, and his stockings white. In a space near the head, 
in the original, were the words, 'I, Josiah the First, do, by this royal proclamation,, 
announce myself King of New England, Nova Scotia, and Passamaquoddy, Grand 
Master of the noble order of the Two Codfishes' " (VII, 358). 

^Military Monitor (New York), July 12, 1813, I, 363. 

^"Aurora (Philadelphia), October 25, 1813, p. 2-3. The following toast was given 
at Passyunk in 1813: "Governor Strong and Orator Fum — two peas of a pod. 3 
Groans!" (Aurora, July 12, 1813, p. 2-5). 

^^Independent Chronicle (Boston), September 30, 1813, p. 2-3. In connection 
with Quincy, it is perhaps worth while to quote the following, for the sake of what 
is apparently an 'onrecorded use of the terra hand organ: "THE Virginia Argua 
— one of Mr. Madison's hand organs — calls upon the Federalists of the North to 
abandon Quinct" {Columbian Centinel, August 29, 1812, p. 1-5). 

^^ Columbian Centinel, November 4, 1812, p. 2-4. 

^^ Columbian Centinel, October 28, 1812, p. 1-4. 

" The two anonymous Addresses or Letters, as they are sometimes called, written 
in March, 1783, will be found in A Collection of Papers, relative to Half-Pay and 
Commutation of Half-Pay, Granted by Congress to the Officers of the Army, Fish- 
Kill, 1783, pp. 16-21. 

In the Columbian Centinel of July 22, 1812, "Brutus" asked: "As a friend to liberty 
and republicanism, I wish to inquire whether Mr. Armstrong lately made a Brigadier 
General in our army by President Madison, is the same man, who has been supposed 
to have written the letters to the army in 1783, advising them to retain their arms, 
till they had forced the civil authorities to comply with their demands, and com- 
pensated themselves by plundering the innocent and defenceless citizens?" (p. 2-3). 
In the New York Herald of January 20, 1813, is the following: "New Secretary at 
War. — Gen. Armstrong's appointment has passed the Senate by a majority of 
three. Yesterday we mentioned that a Captain Jones of Philadelphia, was appointed 
Secretary of the Navy. So that we have for a Secretary of the Navy a man who 
headed a Philadelphia mob, to encourage the administration to pursue the war, 
and a Secretary of the Army, a man who exerted his best abilities to induce the 
heroes of the revolution to tiirn their arms against their own country. Nothing 
was wanting to compleat the administration but a man for Secretary of the Treas- 
ury who once headed a rebellion, and they have him in Albert Gallatin" (p. 1-2). 
William Jones was the new Secretary of the Navy. In the New York Herald of 
September 'i, 1813, is an extract taken from the Federal Republican (of Wash- 
ington): " Appointments-in-petto — Bombastico Inchiquin to be Attorney General, 
vice Marquis of Whitewash, so long inimical in the cabinet to secretary Mars. 
— Note: this nomination can only be read, at present, by a flus/i-light. Brigadier- 
General Boanerges to be Secretary of War, vice Duke of Newburgh, to be removed 
under the standing rescript of the Virginia dynasty" (p. 4-2). "Bombastico 



26 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

Tommy, "^^ "Thomas the Magician, "^^ and "Thomas 
Conundrum."^' President Madison was " Little Jemmy, "^^ 
"King James" or "King Jemmy,"^^ "James the Great, "^"^ 
and " Mundmigus, "^^ and was referred to as "James the 
First Emperor of the Virginians and King of the United 
States. "22 Timothy Pickering was "Uncle Tim.''^^ On 
November 10, 1812, General Alexander Smyth issued a 



Inchiquin" was Charles J. IngersoU, author of Inchiquin, the Jesuit's Letters (1810); 
the "Marquis of Whitewash" was apparently William Pinckney; "Rush-light" is 
an allusion to Richard Rush; while the identity of "Brigadier General Boanerges" 
escapes me. 

Satirical allusions to the "Virginia dynasty" were long common in the Northern 
newspapers. In the Columbian Centinel of February 6, 1813, a correspondent said: 
"I WAS one of those who predicted in the year 1801, that the Virginia dynasty, 
which was at that time coming into power therein ever after to remain, would violate 
the Public Faith then pledged to the public creditors" (p. 2-1). See also New York 
Evening Post, November, 1812, p. 2-5; Columbian Centinel, November 7, 1812, 2-3; 
Columbian Centinel, June 4, 1814, p. 2-3. 

"a satirical poem called "An Intercepted Letter, from Tall Tommy to Little 
Jemmy" appeared in the Salem Gazette of November 3, 1814, p. 4-1. 

""And it came to pass . . . that there arose a mighty man in the land, 
called Thomas, the Magician, on account of his great skill and cunning in dark and 
mysterious projects" (Adventures of Uncle Sam, 1812, p. 10). 

"The Yankee in London, 1826, p. 9. 

^'See note 15, above. 

"iVeio York Herald, April 16, 1814, p. 4^1. 

*" Connecticut Courant, January 19, 1813, p. 3-1. 

""The reins of government were now held by Mundungus, the great tetrarch of 
the nation, the apostle and successor of the great Conundrum" (The Yankee in 
London, 1826, p. 93). 

"Portsmouth Oracle, August 27, 1814, p. 2-2. In the Columbian Centinel of 
January 26, 1814, appeared these lines (p. 4-1): 

"Then, soon will the Country submit to the thing 
Which we wanted — to make Madison King!" 

"a poetical skit entitled "All Tories Together," which appeared in the Aurora 
of October 7, 1813, began thus (p. 2-5): 

"OhI come in true jacobin trim. 

With birds of the same color'd feather, 
Bring your plots and intrigues, uncle Tim, 

And let's all be tories together." 

In the Northern Centinel (Burlington, Vermont) of December 3, 1813, appeared 
the following: "But, the bold benevolenla of Vermont have lately smuggled from 
the enemy a Governor of the true British stamp, and have placed him upon the 
throne of State. This must eclipse the boasted feats of Bulwark Strong, Uncle Tim, 
and Fi-fo-fum, these three champions, will need something more than their own 
sagacity, to place them again in the front rank of toryism, nothing short of their 
smuggling out the duke of York and Mrs. Clark can raise these eastern heroes to a 
level with his Majesty's brave subjects in Vermont" (p. 3-3). The allusion is to 
the recent election by the Legislature, there having been no election by the people, 
of Martin Chittenden as Governor of Vermont. By " benevolents " are meant 
members of the Washington Benevolent Societies, then common. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 



27 



proclamation,^* whereupon it was said that ''during this 
time Gen. Proclamation curvetted about. "^^ General James 



til 



The proclamation, dated "Camp near Buffalo." is printed in the Columbian 
Centvnel of November 25. 1812. p. 2-4. A parody on the proclamation, ending as 
foUows. was printed in the AWany Gazette of December 3, 1812 (p. 3-4): 

"And thus I close my message with 

The NAME of ALEXANDER SMYTH t 

A Gen'ral. Brigadier, Inspector, 

Commander, Conq'ror. and Protector — 

Whose 'Brock's black reg'ment' ne'er did fear yet. 

In camp at Buffalo, or near it." 

Sir Isaac Brock, to whom Hull had capitulated, was kiUed at Queenston on October 
lot 1S12. 

The boasting proclamations issued by the American generals were a constant 
source of ridicule in the peace papers. In his proclamation of July 12, 1812 General 
Hull said: "Had I any doubt of eventual success. I might ask your assistance, 
but I do not. I come prepared for any contingency— I have a force that will look 
down all opposition, and that force is but a vanguard of a much greater" (Colum- 
bian Centmel, August 5. 1812, p. 1-4). The Portsmouth Oracle of September 8 
1812, spoke of Hull's proclamation "to look down opposition" in Canada (p 3-4) 
The Connecticut Courant of December 22, 1812. said that Hull "issued a look down 
proclamation to the . affrighted Canadians" (p. 1-4). The Manlius Times quoted 
in the New England Palladium of October 22, 1813, stated that "The Procla- 
mation campaign has again commenced upon the Niagara frontiers" (p 2-1) 
In the Salem Gazette of December 3. 1813, appeared the following- "The 
same Collectors will be employed next winter to execute the same duties in the 
Moon, which, it is expected, will be 'looked down' during the next campaign!" 
(p. 3—2). 

On August 16, 1812, Hull ignominiously gave up himself, his army, and Detroit 
and incidentally enriched the language with a new verb. The surrender of Burgoyne 
at Saratoga, of Lincoln at Charieston, and of Cornwairs at Yorktown, had given 
rise to the words " Burgoynade, " "to Burgoyne," "Lincolnade, " and "Cornwal- 
hsade." The Conn^cHcut Courant of September 22, 1812, said: "Should Gen 
Dearborn enter the territory, he ought, if he means not to be Hull'd. or defeated" 
to have 25 or 30,000 men" (p. 3-4). The Military Monitor of October 5 181 2' 
quoted the following from the Aurora: "These facts show the absurdity of the idea 
of a force of 4.000 men marching to be Hull-ed. in a country where 19,000 of their 
countrymen were once before Bubootned" (I. 59). The N^ Hampshire Gazette 
of . ipril 20, 1 81 3, remarked: ' ' From every section of the union, we hear of the march 
of troops and active preparations to open the campaign on the northern frontier 
with vigor and unless our gaUant army is agaift Hulled, the British flag -^-ill soon 
disappear from Canada" (p. 3-2). The New York Herald of March 30, 1814 quoted 
the following from a Herkimer (New York) paper: "The prevailing opinion now 
is. that the campaign will be opened at Niagara; some suppose Detroit. If at the 
latter place, with the paltry force now marching in that direction, we shall most 
certainly get Hull'd" (p. 3-5). 

^^ Columbian Centinel, December 16, 1812 (p. 2-2). The following is taken from 
the Yankee (Boston) of December 18, 1812 (p. 3-2): 

"General Smyth — again. 

"How many Militia and Volunteers, with such Generals as Hull, Smyth, et cetera, 
will conquer Canada? 

"A Yankee answer by another question— How many snow balls will heat an 
oven?" 



28 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

Wilkinson was called "Don" or "Don Jamie," in allusion 
to Don Quixote.^^ 

Besides these nicknames applied to persons, there were 
several epithets which were employed to designate a class. 
Those who favored the war were called "Wildcats, "^'^ " War- 
dogs, "^^ "War-hirelings, "29 " War-men, "^^ and "War- 
sharks,"^^ but the favorite term was "War-hawks." Under 
the head of "Political Intoxication," the following appeared 
in the Columbian Centinel of February 19, 1812 (p. 4-1) : 

"OUR War-Hawks when pot valiant grown, 
Could they the British King dethrone. 

Would sacrifice a man a day; — 
To me the reason's very plain, 
Why topers talk in such a strain — 

They want a double* Can-a-day. 
* Upper and Lower." 

"The noisy and vociferous demagogues and war hawks," 
said the Portland Gazette, " and office hunters in this vicinity, 
have never once slipt out of their beds of down, or paid 



In the Columbian Centinel of December 23, 1812, appeared the following (p. 2-3): 
"A letter from Albany, says, 'All the Generals from Canada are extremely morti- 
fied and crest-fallen. The boys at Buffalo form themselves into groups, and sing 
the following altered stanza of Yankee Doodle: ' — 

"'When Smtthe a Bragodier had got, 

He prov'd a darned coward — 
He durst not go to Canada 

For fear of being devoured. 
Yankee doodle, doodle do — 
Yankee doodle dandy — 
Mind the back step of the march — 
And with your legs be handy. " ' 

" Salem Gazette, May 3, 1814 (p. 2-4). In the SdUm Gazette of November 25, 1813, 
appeared a paragraph headed "Braggardisml Wilkinson's Glorious Expedition 
to Canada!" (p. 2-2). The unsuccessful expedition into Canada gave rise to an 
epigram printed in the Columbian Centinel of December 11, 1813: 

"Gen. Wilkinson's late Expedition. 
WITH Conquest how his bosom burn'dl — 
He went — he saw — and then — return'd. " 

""Some of the Wildcats of Congress," said the Columbian Centinel of June 6, 
1812, "have gone home, unable to incur the awful responsibility of unnecessary 
War" (p. 2-5). 

^^ Columbian Centinel, October 23, 1813, p. 2-1; June 29, 1814, p. 2-3. 

''^Columbian Centinel, June 18, 1814, p. 2-3. 

^Columbian Centinel, June 11, 1814, p. 2-4. 

^Columbian Centinel, September 1, 1813, p. 2-1. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 29 

a single cent from their pockets, in support of their darling 
war."«2 

The "War-hawks" retahated by calling the peace men 
"Tories" and likening them to the LoyaHsts of the Revolu- 
tion. "The war-hawks of that vicinity," said the New 
York Evening Post of October 28, 1812, "came to his house 
and began abusing him with the usual slang of Federalist, 
old Tory, &c." (p. 2-4). 

Nowhere was the depth of popular feeling more clearly 
shown than in the toasts that were offered at the various 
dinners which were so freely partaken of on the Fourth of 
July and on other occasions. Such dinners would now seem 
somewhat provincial, but they were exceedingly common 
late in the eighteenth and early in the nineteenth centuries, 
and no doubt they were of service in fostering the spirit 
of nationality.^^ 

The following toasts were given in 1812. At Phila- 
delphia: "May the tories of N. England repent — or be 



''Quoted in the supplement to the Albany Gazette of November 19, 1812 (p. 1-1). 
The term was sometimes used attributively. Thus we hear of "the War-Hawk 
Government" (Columbian Centinel, September 28, 1814, p. 1-2); of "the war-hawk 
party" (Portsmouth Oracle, January 28, 1815, p. 3-2); of "the War-Hawk rulers" 
(Columbian Centinel, September 28, 1814, p. 1-2); and of "our War-Hawk Select- 
men" (Connecticut Courant, August 16, 1814, p. 1-5). 

'^ In a speech on the admission of the Territory of Orleans, deUvered in Congress 
on January 14, 1811, Josiah Quincy declared it as his "deliberate opinion that, if 
this bill passes, ... it will be the duty of some" of the States "to prepare 
definitely for a separation — amicably, if they can; violently, if they must" (Speeches, 
1874, p. 196). While this remark has become historic, it is almost invariably mis- 
quoted. In a speech made in Congress on January 8, 1813, Henry Clay, referring 
to Quincy, said: "The gentleman can not have forgotten his own sentiments, 
uttered even on the floor of this House, 'peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must'" 
(Works, 1897, V, 58). It is the Clay version that has become a familiar quotation. 

In the Boston Herald of November 23, 1904, appeared the following: 

"In a signed article in the Huntsville, Ala., Mercury, R. T. Bentley, a well-known 
man, says: 

"'It appearing that Theodore Roosevelt, the head and front of the republican 
party, which represents the dangerous policies of civilization, protective tariff, 
imperialism and social equality, has been elected president of the United States 
by a strictly sectional vote, and has established an insurmountable barrier between 
the north and south, I feel constrained to express my humble opinion, as a true and 
patriotic American citizen of the south, that if the republican party should continue 
its dangerous policies for the next 4 yrs. and should triumph in the next national 
election, that the 13 states which voted for A. B. Parker should secede from the 
union and by force of arms resist an oppression which means the early fall of om- 
great republic. ' " 

At the present day such a statement merely excites amusement, as no one takes 
it seriously; but in 1812 it was different. 



30 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

damned.''^^ At Norwich, Vermont: ''The TORIES!— Too 
mean to live, too wicked to die — unworthy of heaven, and 
too bad for hell; — may the Angel of darkness convey them 
beyond the bounds of either. "^^ 

In 1813 were given the toasts which follow. At Boston: 
"May the traitorous designs of junto federalists and their 
wicked declaration, that 'Britain is the bulwark of our 
religion/ become more and more obnoxious by appointing 
'Fee, Fow, Fum' Orators to promulgate their detestable 
principles. "^^ At Sutton, Massachusetts: "Caleb Strong: 
The addresser of Gage,^^ the defender of impressment, 
the justifier of Indian massacres, the advocate of England, 
and the enemy of America. — May he retire, repent, and 
yet be saved. "^^ At Philadelphia: "Governor Strong: 
Eternal infamy and execration to the foul hypocrite who 
could be base enough to pronounce the most savage, unprin- 
cipled and blood thirsty nation on the face of the earth the 
' bulwark of our religion. ' Over the hills and far away. "^^ 
At Camp Meigs: "The tories and apologists for the wrongs 
done us by the British government where they ought to be, 
kissing their monarch's toe. Rogue's March."^^ At New 
York : " Tories — old, new — native and exotic — marshal's pass- 



^ Aurora, July 7, 1812, p. 2-2. 

^Portsmouth Oracle, August 22, 1812, p. 4-1. 

^Aurora, July 27, 1813. 

"Caleb Strong was one of the twenty-eight "Barristers and Attornies at Law" 
who addressed Gage on July 1, 1774 {Boston. News-Letter, July 7, 1774, p. 1-1). 
Those who addressed Gage on his departure in October, 1775, were of course loy- 
alists; but the addresses to Gage on his arrival in 1774 were signed by both loyalists 
and ardent patriots. Perhaps no one received harder blows from his opponents 
in the war of 1812 than Strong. The following toast was given at Bernardston, 
Massachusetts: "The governor of Massachusetts. In 1774 the loyal addresser of 
Gage, in 1812 and 13 the eulogist and special pleader of the ' bulwark of our religion' " 
(Aurora, August 3, 1813, p. 1-3). At Pittsfield, Massachusetts: "Caleb Strong — 
The man, who by cunning concealment and tory prevarication, would endeavor 
to reason away the rights of his country, is unworthy of its confidence" {Aurora, 
July 22, 1813, p. 1). At Passyunk: "Execration to the hoary head traitorous 
vindicator of the barbarities of the monstrous government of England: His treason 
is only equal to his cowardice; 'England has done us no essential injury:' Yoo 
LIE YOU V " (Aurora, July 12, 1813, p. 2-5). 

There is an expression in the last toast that h£^ a familiar sound at the present 
day. 

^Aurora, August 3, 1813, p. 1-3. 

^^ Aurora, July 9, 1813, p. 2-4. 

*" National Intelligencer (Washington), July 29, 1813, p. 1-3. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 31 

ports — time — three seconds — destination — 'the fast anchored 
isle.' "" 

In 1814 were given the following toasts. At Belfast, 
Maine: "The War-Hawks and Vultures at Washington: — 
Having usurped the place of the towering Eagle, may they 
be expelled from the capitol, with their wings clipped and 
a label about their necks, to the wilds of Kentucky, the 
native haunts of birds of prey.'"^^ At Scituate, Massachusetts: 
" The President of the United States — Respect for the office, 
but contempt for the incumbent — an immediate resignation 
his first duty — the Island of Elba his last retreat."*^ At 
Hudson, New York: "Massachusetts — British influence 
but poor bait for Codfish — may she let down her net the 
right side of the Ship."^* At Winchendon, Massachusetts; 
'James I. of America. — In the imitation of his prototype 
may he soon be compelled by the voice of the people to 
abdicate in favour of a rightful heir. — 3 cheers. "'^^ At 



** Military Monitor, April 5, 1813, I, 254. The following amusing paragraph may 
be quoted here: "Remarkable Incident. — On the 4th of July, 1812, General Chandleb 
gave as a toast at Augusta: — 'The 4th of July 1813 — May we on that day drink 
wine within the walla of Quebec!' On this same 4th of July he was within the walls 
of Quebec (a prisoner) and from the known hospitality of the citizens of that place 
we have no doubt his wish was literally gratified" {Columbian CerUinel, July 7, 181S, 
p. 2-4). 

*^ Columbian Centinel, March 9, 1814, p. 2-2. 

*^ Columbian Centinel, July 9, 1814, p. 1-6. 

**Bee (Hudson), July 12, 1814, p. 3-3. 

*^ Maaaachusetta Spy, July 20, 1814, p. 3-2. It is curious to see how history repeats 
itself. Between 1898 and his death. President McKinley was sometimes alluded 
to as "William I." In the Boston Herald of January 28, 1907, we read of "Kaiser 
Theodore," and in the same paper of November 11, 1907, of "Theodore I." Just 
as Monroe was alluded to in 1814 as "the heir apparent," so now the same term 
is applied to Secretary Taft. See Nation, August 22, 1907, LXXXV, 153; Boston 
Herald, November 6, 1907, p. 6-5; Boston Everting Tranacript, December 2, 1907; 
Boston Herald, March 3, 1908, p. 6-3. Even the word "imperial" is not new to 
our polities. In the New York Herald of May 5, 1813, it was satirically said that 
"the bewilderification of the enemy, on beholding our imperial standard, baffles all 
description" (p. 2-4). 

Two examples of the spreadeagleism of the times will prove amusing. The fol- 
lowing toast was given at Waterville, Maine, on July 4, 1815: "The Eagle of the 
United States — 'May she extend her wings from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and 
fixing her talons on the Isthmus of Darien, stretch with her beak to the Northern 
Pole'" {Salem Gazette, July 18, 1815, p. 4-1). Capt. Ross Bird of the United States 
Army having been placed under arrest and bereft of his sword, he sent in his resig- 
nation, in part as follows: "In leaving the service, I am not abandoning the cause of 
repiiblicanism, but yet hope to brandish the glittering steel in the field, and carve 
my way to a name which shall prove my country's neglect; and when this mortal 
part shall be closetted in the dust, and the soul shall wing its flight for the region* 



32 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

New York: "Timothy Pickering. — 'A greater liar Parthia 
never bred.' "*^ 

It is clear that every one was in an irritated frame of 
mind, the merest trifle being sufficient to arouse bitter 
feelings, and even to cause men to come to actual blows. 
Duel after duel was fought by those in the upper classes 
of society — whether military, naval, or civil; and even 
among respectable people hand to hand fights seem occasion- 
ally to have taken place.^^ To add to the general irritation, 
several especially unpopular laws were enacted. An act 
laying direct and other taxes was approved by President 
Madison on July 30, and went into effect on December 25, 



above, in passing by the palefaced moon, I shall hang my iiat upon brilliant Mars, 
and make a report to each superlative star — and arriving at the portals of Heaven's 
high Chancery, shall demand of the attending Angel to be ushered into the presence 
of Washington" (New York Herald, November 10, 1813, p. 1-3). 

*'New York Herald, July 13, 1814. p. 1-1. 

*' Two may be specified. The following is taken from the New York Herald of 
April 10, 1813: "Fracas at Albany. — By the passengers in the Steam Boat we are 
informed, that a fracas took place in Albany last Wednesday [April 7], between 
Col. Peter B. Porter and John Lovett, Esq., occasioned by some publications which 
have been made relative to the affair between Col. S. Van Rensselaer and Col. Porter. 
It is said Col. Porter, after some high words had passed, attacked Mr. Lovett with 
a cane, on which Mr. Lovett closed in with him and was like to demolish him, when 
some of the by-standers interfered and put an end to the contest" (p. 3-2). 

The other case, curiously enough, concerns a man of whom we shall hear later 
in connection with the alleged origin of Uncle Sam. In the Albany Gazette of Sep- 
tember 20, 1813, appeared this (p. 3-4): 

"The following note has been handed to us by Mr. Butler — We do not intend 
to prejudge the cause of dispute by its insertion. The Gazette will be freely open to 
Mr. Anderson. 

"ELBERT ANDERSON, Jun. Contractor U. S. Army, is a base Villain, a Liar 

and a Coward. 

James BUTLER. 

"18th September, 1813." 

Anderson and Butler apparently had a hand to hand scrimmage at Plattsburgh, 
for in the Albany Gazette of September 30, 1813, was printed a communication in 

part as follows (p. 3-3): 

"Albany, 28th, Sept. 1813. 

"Messrs. Websters and Skinners, 

"A publication having appeared in your paper, during the absence of the Contrac- 
tor, signed 'James Butler,' a friend to the former gentleman, who was an eye witness 
to the fracas at Plattsburgh, requests you to publish the following statement from 
the Plattsburgh Republican, of the 18th inst. 

"A rash man has applied to the Contractor for the Army, epithets of a libellous 
and scurrilous nature 

'•Plattsburgh, Sept. 15, 1813." 

So far as I have noted, the incident closed with the publication in the Albany 
Gazette of October 4, 1813, of a card from Butler dated Lansingburgh, September 
29, stating that the writer of the above letter was "an infamous liar" (p. 3-2). 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 33 

1813.''^ In a Worcester paper of December 22, 1813, 
appeared the following: 

" The New Army — ^The tax-gathering campaign is about 
opening, and will undoubtedly be both brilliant and successful, 
as the army of assessors and collectors is very numerous and 
ably supported by the strong arm of the government. — ^This 
patriotic band of harpies will unquestionably acquit themselves 
with great skill and adroitness in diving to the bottom of the 
farmers' pockets and filching away the hard-earnings of many 
a tedious day. "*^ 

Long before this, however, there had been clashes between 
United States custom house officers and others. A com- 
munication dated Portland, Massachusetts,^^ May 28, 1813, 
beginning with the statement that "A most daring infringe- 
ment of the laws took place here upon the evening of the 
25th," went on to describe the seizure of goods by custom 
house officers, who were set upon by smugglers, the latter 
making off with the goods.^^ In September, 1813, what 
is described as "a battle" took place at Granville, New 
York, on the borders of Vermont, between United States 
custom house officers and officials of New York. 

Meanwhile, however, we get our first glimpse of Uncle 
Sam. An article half a column in length, headed "For 
the Troy Post, " was printed in that paper of September 
7, 1813, and began as follows : 

" 'Loss upon loss, and no ill luck stiring [sic] but what 
lights upon UNCLE SAM'S shoulders,' exclaim the Govern- 
ment editors, in every part of the Country. The Albany 
Arffus of last Tuesday laments the disasters and disappoint- 
ments of our Border War, in most pathetic strains &c. &c." 

In a note is given this explanation : 

"This cant name for our government has got almost as 
current as 'John Bull.' The letters U. S. on the government 
waggons, &c are supposed to have given rise to it" (p. 3-3). 



*'See New Hampshire Gazette, September 14, 21, 1813; New York Herald, August 
25, 28, 1813; Columbian Centinel, December 25, 1813. 
*^ Massachuaetta Spy, December 22, 1813, p. 1-3. 

'" It will be remembered that until 1820 Maine was part of Massachusetts. 
' Quoted in the National Intelligencer (Washington), June 8, 1813, p. 2-3. 



34 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

In the Lansinghurgh Gazette of late in September or 
possibly October 1, 1813, appeared the following: 

"Land Privateering. — ^The following is a short sketch of 
a recent battle, under the act®^ to encourage land-privateering, 
between what are called in this part of the country, Uncle 
Sam's Men and the Men of New-York: — On Friday se'nnight, 
a quantity of goods were seized pursuant to the act aforesaid, 
by a custom house officer at Granville, in Washington county, 
under the pretence that they had been smuggled from Canada. 
On the Monday succeeding the owner obtained a writ of replevin, 
and the sheriff, after meeting with some opposition, succeeded, 
in possessing himself of the goods, according to the laws of this 
state. Uncle Sam's Men, however, feeling little disposition 
to be deprived of their booty in this manner, (for secure as 
they thought of the whole, they had plundered but a small 
part of the goods,) raised a band of war hawks, and attempted 
a rescue. The sherriff called the posse of the neighborhood 
to his assistance, and the parties being nearly equal, altho' the 
war-hawks were rather the most numerous, a battle royal 
ensued. It was long and obstinately contested; but ended 
in the complete discomfiture of Uncle Sam's party, who retired 
from the conflict, marked with many a broken head and bruised 
limb, leaving the Alen of New-York in possession of the field 
of battle and the goods. "^ 



b^ 



In a communication dated Burlington, Vermont, October 
1, 1813, appeared the following: 

"The 'patriotic Volunteers, who have inarched here to guard 
the public stores in the absence of the regular army, are taking 
^long furloughs, ' and volunteering for home by tens and fifties, 
and hundreds. — ^The pretence is, that Uncle Sam, the now pop- 
ular explication of the U. S. does not pay well; and that the 
cold begins to pinch. "^ 

From a paper published at Herkimer, New York, on 
January 27, 1814, is taken the following: 

" 'Uncle Sam's' hard bargains. — On Thursday afternoon 
of last week, about thirty sleighs, 'more or less'^^ loaded with 



** I do not know what act is meant. 

"'Quoted in the New York Herald, October 2, 1813, p. 3-3. I have been unable 
to find a copy of the Lansinghurgh Gazette containing the extract. 

"Quoted in the Columbian Centinel, October 9, 1813, p. 2-3. 

*° The words "more or less" apparently occurred in the official accounts of the 
captiu-e of York in April, 1813, but I have not been able to discover in exactly what 
connection. At all events, they caused much fun in the peace papers. "One 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 35 

the 'weak and wounded, sick and sore' of our armies on the 
frontiers, passed through this village for Greenbush. Never 
before have we beheld such a picture. Half-naked, half- 
frozen, and by their looks half-starved: some with and some 
without legs, others upon crutches, or supporting each other 
from falling, with their heads or arms bandaged, and the blood 
still oozing from their half drest wounds — their meagre, emaci- 
ated and ghastly appearance presented at once to the eye of 
the beholder, a striking picture of the horrors of war and neglect."^ 

In a paper published at Windsor, Vermont, in February, 
1814, are found allusions to Secretary Armstrong and Josiah 
Quincy : 

"[The following Extraordinary Advertisement is co-pied from 
the last (Windsor) Washingtonian.] 

"SLAVES WANTED! 

"UNCLE SAM, a worthy gentleman Slaveholder (of Virginia) 
wants to purchase, at 124 dollars a head, 65,000 ('more or less') 
stout, able-bodied, full-blooded YANKEES, to aid Field Mar- 
shall, the Duke of Newburgh, in taking Possession of a Plantation 
he has lately bargained for, (mth himself) if he can get it, 
IN CANADA. Apply at the truly fortunate Lottery Office; — 
or, elsewhere, if more convenient; — as every ' Office-holder or 
Citizen, ' in the United States, is fully authorized and empowered 
to contract, as the acknowledged agent of his Uncle. 

"N. B. — Uncle Sam's purse is rather low — but no matter. 
The Duke will guarantee the pay—' FORCIBLY— i/ he must. ' ' '^' 

In the Herkimer American of April 28, 1814, was printed 
the following: 

"Economy. — A few days since, in a neighboring town twelve 
United States' waggons were repaired, for which the blacksmith 
was paid one thousand eight hundred dollars out of Uncle Sam's 
purse. Query. How much is the usual cost of anew waggon?"^* 



dead Indian, 'more or less,'" said the New York Herald of July 14, 1813, p. 1-1. 
"Wanted," declared the Columbian Centivsl of December 4, 1813, "about five hun- 
dred ('more or less') able-bodied, stout-hearted real Americans, to collect our land 
tax in our territory of Canada" (p. 2-3). 

"Quoted in the Connecticut Courant, February 8, 1814, p. 3-2. The same passage 
is quoted in the Massachusetts Spy of February 9, 1814, p. 2-3, and February 23, 
p. 4-3, except that in both instances the words "'Uncle Sam's' hard bargains" 
are omitted. 

"Quoted in the Salem Gazette, February 14, 1814, p. 3-3. See p. 29, note 33, 
above. 

"Quoted in the Neiv York Spectator, May 7, 1814, p. 1-1. The passage was also 
printed in the Massachusetts Spy of May 25, 1814, p. 3-3. 



36 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

In or about May, 1814, the Keene Sentinel printed the 
following : 

"More Economy! — Colonel Pickering in his Speech on the 
Loan Bill, stated, on direct information from two members 
of the former Congress, that a waggon started with 40 bushels 
of corn for the army — that the team of horses consumed 18 
bushels on the way — reserved 18 to feed them on returning, and 
delivered 4 bushels, which must, at this rate, have cost fifty 
dollars a bushel ! 

"Everyone remembers the vinegar transported from Boston 
to Albany, which might have been procured cheaper at the 
latter than the former place. 

"Uncle Sam's teams are continually passing thro' this town, 
with cannon balls, &c. for the fleet at Vergennes. These balls 
are transported from Boston, at an expense of not less than 
twenty shillings for every 100 wt. i. e. every 32 lb. ball costs 
a dollar for transportation onl}'. Now it is well known there 
are several foundaries in the vicinity of the Lake, and one very 
extensive one in Vergennes. — What then could induce the 
contractor to resort to this useless waste of the sinews of warf 
Quere. Do not the contractors have a certain per cent? If so, 
the larger the bills are, the better for them."^** 

An extract dated Baltimore, June 22, 1814, reads as follows: 

"A detachment of 260 Uncle Sam's troops, under Major 
Keyser have embarked from Baltimore, to aid in raising the 
blockade of Barney's flotilla. [This is as it should be, — ^The 
regulars are paid and fed for the common defense.]"®* 

The following passage is dated Keene, New Hampshire, 
November 5, 1814 : 

"The soldiers, drafted for the defence of Portsmouth are 
mostly on their return home. By some arrangement between 
the Governor and General Chandler, the latter, it seems, under- 
took to provide for, and pay the troops. The names of those 
poor fellows are on Uncle Sam's pay roll; but not a cent of 
money have any of them received. This will come when the 
government loan is filled, and this loan will be filled when public 
credit is restored, either before, or after 'the troubled night 
of this administration departs.' "^^ 



""Quoted in the Portsmouth Oracle, May 21, 1814, p. 2-5. The story of the wagon 
which started with forty bushels of corn, related by Timothy Pickering, was reprinted 
in the M asgachuaetts Spy of May 25, 1814, p. 3-3, but "Uncle Sam" is omitted. 

"Quoted in the Columbian Centinel, June 29, 1814, p. 2-1. 

"Quoted in the New York Herald, November 16, 1814, p. 3-4. 



1908.] Uncle Sam, 37 

The following story appeared in the Oolumhian Oentinel 
of December 3, 1814 : 

'' UNCLE SAM AND JOHN BULL, 

"U. Sam pays his soldier-servants in Paper Money ('Chequer 
Bills) which the poor fellows carry to the brokers, and sell at 
a loss from 20 to 30 dollars in a hundred, and which Uncle 
Sam thinks is so much saved. 

" But John Bull, an old fool, carries his Paper Money to 
market himself, gets as much gold and silver for it as he can — 
and pays off his soldier-servants in Ready Rhino, thereby 
losing all the discount himself. 

"Who then shall say, that Uncle Sam is not a prudent, 
calculating fellow — and John Bull a fool and a spend- 
thrift? '"'" 

The Plattsburg Herald of December 9, 1814, contained 
the following : 

" 'Uncle Sam's Pay'— AGAIN.— The detatched Militia, of 
this state, who have been stationed at this post for these three 
months past, are principally discharged, and are to leave this 
place to-day. For the encouragement of the citizens of this 
state to unite in defence of ' Free Trade and Sailor's Rights, ' — 
... we have to inform them that the aforesaid militia are 
now permitted to leave this, and get to their homes as they can, 
without (as they inform us) a cent of their pay, or even so 
much as the offer of a single Treasury Note, some of them the 
distance of 200 miles. . . Who will not unite in this righteous 
war, and support the just and wise administration who declared 
it?— Union! Union !"«" 

In the Salem Gazette of January 27, 1815, was printed the 
following : 

"According to the Recruiting Orders lately issued, all men 
enlisted, before they pass nmster, must be stripped. This 
is well enough, the peacable citizens have been stripped 
by the war-hawk party long since; and it is high time the 
system should be extended to the military of Uncle Sam's 
family. '"* 

**The story was reprinted in the New York Herald of December 7, 1814, p. 2-3. 
"Quoted in the New York Herald, December 21, 1814, p. 3-5. 
'* The extract was reprinted in the Port«mouih Oracle of January 28, 1815, p. 3-2; 
and in the Connecticut Courant of February 7, 1815, p. 3-1. 



38 American Antiquarian Society. [Av^^i 

The New Bedford Mercury of January 27, 1815, contained 
the following: 

" UNCLE SAM'S BARGAINS. 

"On Tuesday last, the Deputy Collector of the 14th Collection 
District, agreeable to previous notice, proceeded to sell the 
real estate of about 30 persons of this town, for payment of 
Direct Taxes. No person appearing to purchase, the whole 
was knocked down to Uncle Sam — Whether Uncle Sam or his 
agents will ever DARE attempt to take possession of these 
purchases, is another part of the business."^ 

The above passage was quoted early in 1815 by Hezekiah 
Niles, who appended this note: "U. S. or Uncle Sam — 
a cant term in the army for the United States. "^^ 

In the Columbian Gentinel of June 21, 1815, appeared the 
following : 

A District Paymaster of the U. S. residing in N. Y. by the 
name of Whittleby has advertised ha^dng been robbed of Thirty 
Thousand dollars of Uncle Sam's money intended to pay the 
militia. It was in his Portmanteau, which some how or 
other, and somewhere or other, was cut open, and the money 
all rifled! The pay-master having a bad memory, could 
not recollect the denominations of bills; and forgot to offer a 
reward for the detection of the 'nefarious and daring 
wretch' " (p. 2-2). 

Uncle Sam apparently made his first appearance in 
verse in a song called "Siege of Plattsburg, Sung at the 
Theatre, in Albanv in the character of a Black Sailor. 
Tune — 'Boyn Water.' " There are four stanzas, the first 
as follows: 

" Back side Albany stan' lake Champlain, 

One little pond, haf full a' water 
Plat-te-bug dare too, close pon de main, 

Town small — he grow bigger do herearter. 
On lake Champlain, 
Uncle Sam set he boat, 
And Massa M'Donough, he sail 'em; 



** Quoted in the Salem Gazette, January 21, 1815, p. 3-1; Portamouth Oracle, Feb- 
ruary 4, p. 3-1; Connecticut Courant, February 7, p. 1-3. 

®' Supplement to Niles' Register, VII, 187. That volume ended with the issue of 
February 25, 1815. 



1908,] Uncle Sam. 39 

While Gen'ral M'Comb 
Make Plat-te-bug he home, 
Wid de army, who courage nebber fail 'em, "^ 

At this point, let us pause a moment and review the evi- 
(jence — evidence w^hich thus far has been drawn wholly from 
the newspapers. The term Uncle Sam is first found in 
September, 1813, or when the war was half over, though 
even then it was alleged to have "got almost as current 
as 'John Bull.' "^^ While this statement may be true as 
regards the neighborhood of Greenbush,^^ at which place 
the camp was a rendezvous for the soldiers, it is not true 
of the country as a whole.'^" The term first appeared in 
papers published in cities or towns either in New York — 
as Troy, Lansingburgh, and Herkimer; or in Vermont — 
as Burlington and Windsor. In short, it arose exactly 
where one would expect it to arise — either in the neighbor- 
hood of Greenbush or along the Canadian frontiers where 
the fighting was done. Finally, there is one singular featui'e 
of the evidence. Every instance of Uncle Sam thus far 



"' Supplement to Niles' Register, IX, 95. That volume ended with the issue of 
February 24, 1816. The Albany Register of December 6, 1814, advertised a play, 
farce, and "Naval Pillar" to take place at the theatre the following evening "in 
honor of the memorable Naval Conflict on Lake Champlain, fought on the glorious 
Eleventh of September" (p. 3-4). The song in the text may have been written 
for that occasion, though it is not mentioned in the advertisement. 

®' See p. 33, above. 

"'There are constant allusions in the newspapers to Greenbush. The Connecticut 
Courant of September 29, 1812, printed an extract dated Pittsfield, September 17: 
"Democratic Economy. — Within a few days past, several waggon loads of Vinsgar and 
Molasses have passed through this callage, on the way from Boston to Greenbush, 
near Albany. These articles were purchased at Boston for the use of the troops 
at Greenbush. The vinegar cost the government Five Dollars per barrel, in Boston; 
and according to the statement of the teamsters, the expence of transportation 
would be much more than the first cost. Now we are told, and we believe correctly, 
that vinegar can be purchased in Albany at less than four dollars per barrel. And 
we presume that molasses can be bought in Albany and New- York, as cheap as in 
Boston. — Why, then, this enormous expence of transportation! — So goes the people's 
money!" (p. 2-5). 

■"• As late as February, 1815, the editor of a Baltimore paper thought it necessary 
to explain the meaning of the term. See p. 38, note 66, above. The newspapers 
throughout the war literally swarm with allusions to John Bull, Yankee, Yankee 
Doodle, and Brother Jonathan. On the other hand, no allusion to Uncle Sam has 
yet been found before September, 1813, while from then until 1816 I have encountered 
less than thirty examples, all of which are quoted or cited in the present paper 
either in text or footnotes. • This statement is based on an examination of news- 
papers published during 1812-1815 in Portsmouth, Salem, Boston, Worcester, Hart- 
ford, Troy, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. 



40 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

given, except that in the "Siege of Plattsburg," is taken 
from a peace paper, while not once does the term occur in 
a war paper. It is not easy to see why the war papers 
should have avoided the term, and the fact that they did 
wolild seem to indicate that it was employed somewhat 
derisively by the peace men. Possibly the sobriquet was 
regarded as merely lacking in dignity. Or it may be, feeling 
running so high, that the mere fact of its being taken up 
by one party was sufficient to condemn it in the eyes of the 
other. But whatever the reason, the fact is striking, and 
is comparable to the avoidance of the word Yankee by the 
New Englanders previous to the battle of Lexington. Does 
not an absolute boycott point at least to a distaste? It 
should also be noted that by "Uncle Sam's men" were 
meant, at first, not soldiers but United States custom house 
officers. 

Thus far, however, the term has been merely a colloqui- 
alism, found only in the newspapers. Let us now follow 
its progress in the literary language. Its first appearance 
in a book was in a political skit published in 1816, and 
written partly in Biblical phrase. Whose identity was 
concealed under the pseudonym of Frederick Augustus 
Fidfaddy, the alleged author of The Adventures of 
Uncle Sam, I do not know. The book itself,'^ like James 
K. Paulding's Diverting History of John Bull and Brother 
Jonathan (pubhshed in 1812) and all similar skits, is mod- 
elled on Arbuthnot's Law is a Bottomless Pit — usually 
called the History of John Bull — published in 1712. 
In it we find not merely Uncle Sam, but Sam, Samuel, 
Samuelite, Uncle Samuel, and Uncle Samuel's Lady — 
meaning Congress. A few extracts follow : 

" 'What! another history of the war? We cannot be 
always reading' exclaims a Smoking Lounger, while he strikes 
his silver headed rattan against the door-post of the Bookseller. 
Softly, my friend, the work professes to be the Adventures of 



'^ As this tract of 142 pages is apparently rare, I give the title: "The Adventures 
of Uncle Sam, in Search after his lost Honor. By Frederick Augustus F.dfaddy, 
Esq., Member of the Legion of Honor, Scratch-etary to Uncle Sam, and Privy 
Counsellor to himself. Middletown: Printed by Seth Richards. 1816." It was 
copyrighted May 16, 1816. 1 i. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 41 

your own dear Uncle, if you are a native American, or of your 
Uncle-in-Law, if you are not . . . Shall Amadis de Gaul, 
Don Quixote and Earl Strongbow, confer unfading glories on 
the respective countries which were the theatres of their 
exploits; and miser-like, pocket all the renown of romantic 
chivalry? Forbid it Uncle Sam, and all his sons! . . . In short, 
the learned Author, in imitation ot high authorities, solicits 
the indulgence of the public: — 1. With regard to the appear- 
ance of our common Uncle Sam. Although, he is old enough 
to be very whimsical, he is like the Author, a green character 
on the stage. . . . Behold said Thomas,^^ how mine Uncle 
Samuel hath fought in times past against John Bull and hath 
prevailed, nevertheless, he oweth at this time, many talents 
of silver. . . The place chosen for the second attempt 
to innoculate the clownish Snowfieldians'^ with blessings of 
Liberty, was Queenston, a pleasant town separated from the 
dominions of Sam, by that frith of water which is known by 
the name of the St.Lawrence. , . . Now the man Proctor" 
the son of Belial of whom we have spoken had his evil heart 
stirred within him again to vex the sons of Samuel. And as 
his manner was he assembled again the wicked sons of Cain, 
and devised mischief against the small band of Samuelites 
which lay at Lower Sandusky. ... It becomes us to 
notice a remarkable change in Uncle Sam's Lady. She has 
lately discarded all her former notions of parsimony and 
philosophic whims of economy, and has most graciously be- 
stowed on herself a very splendid Salary, and whereas, formerly 
her family servants received only six dollars per diem, they now 
receive fifteen hundred, for each entertainment or levee she 
holds, to see company. "'^ 

It has already been noted that in books published in 
1812 and 1814, Paulding did not employ the term Uncle 
Sam.^^ But in a work published in 1817 he wrote: 

"This subject reminds me of a queer fellow that went by 
the name of Paddy Whack, who came over from a place called 
Knockecroghery, as I think and palmed himself upon a good- 
natured kinsman of mine, whom we familiarly called Uncle Sam. 
Pat, . . . was grandson, by the mother's side, to the well 
known humorist, Paddy from Cork, who wore his coat buttoned 
behind to keep his belly warm; and the old man was so pleased 



" Jefferson. 

" The Canadians. 

'* Henry A. Proctor, the British general. 

'^ Adventures of Uncle Sam, pp. 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 53, 96, 140. 

'"See p. 22, note 3, above. 



42 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

with his mode of eating buttermilk without any teeth, that he 
insisted upon having him christened after his name. 
So he took up the business of patriotism, and fastened himself 
upon Uncle Sam, who was a liberal, good-hearted old fellow, 
that kept open house to all comers, and received Pat with 
kindness and hospitality, because he was poor and an exile. "" 

The first foreigner to use the term was apparently W. Faux, 
who in a book written between 1819 and 1823 frequently 
employed it. "Almost all Americans," he quotes a Mr. 
Perry as saying, "are boys in everything but vice and folly! 
In their eyes Uncle Sam is a right slick, mighty fine, smart, 
big man."'^^ On November 24, 1821, Hezekiah Niles wrote: 

" I am, however, diverted from the subject I meant to speak 
of — that is, the 'ways and means' to keep the wheels of the 
government a-going; a most serious concern, especially to those 
who live upon the treasury, or expect to become rich by pluck- 
ing ' Uncle Sam's' great grey goose. "" 

In the Baltimore Patriot of November 11, 1824, appeared 
the following: 

" ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL CARICATURE. 

... It is a proof sheet of a print entitled — 'Caucus curs 
in full YELL, or a war whoop to saddle on the people a pappoose 
PRESIDENT. ' In the background stands the President's house, 
on the right of which ' Uncle Sam's Treasury pap house, ' with 
its 'amalgamation-tool department' " (p. 2-2). 

In 1826 Mrs. Anne Royall, an eccentric lady who wrote 
several books of travel, not lacking in sharp hits, remarked : 

"It often happened while in Washington, that I met with 
'uncle Sam's' men, as they call themselves. Walking in the 
capitol square one day, I stepped up to a man whom I found there 
at work, and asked him whom he worked for, (meaning his 
employer, from whom I wished to obtain some information,) 
'me,' said the fellow, 'I work for uncle Sam,' in a tone of 
unqualified impudence. No matter where you meet those 

" Letters from the South written during an Excursion in the Summer of 1816, 
(1817), II, 207, 208, 210. 

" Memorable Days in America (1823), p. 126. See also pp. 99, 140, 162. 188, 215, 
225, 262, 381. 

''^ Niles' Register, XXI, 199. See also XXI, 38, 197. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 43 

understrappers you may distinguish them bv their unparalleled 
effrontery. "«° 

One of Paulding's innumerable skits was "The History 
of Uncle Sam and his Boys: a Tale for Politicians," 
originally published in the New York Mirror in 1831. In 
this we read: 

"Once upon a time there lived, and still lives, in a country 
Ijdng far to the west, a famous squire, rich in lands and paper 
money. Report made him out to be the son of John Bull, 
who every one knows has children in all parts of the world . . . 
John Bull had christened this son of his by the name of Jonathan; 
but by and by, when he became a man grown, being a good 
hearty fellow, about half horse half alligator,^^ his friends and 
neighbours gave him the nickname of Uncle Sam; a sure sign 
that they liked him, for I never knew a respectable nickname 
given to a scurvy fellow in my life. Be this as it may, his 
family and all his neighbours at last came to call him nothing 
else but Uncle Sam; and all his beef, pork, and flour, in fact 
everything that belonged to him, was marked with a huge 
U. S,, six inches long. As I have a great respect for universal 
example, I shall give him this name in the sequel of my history, 
which I hereby commend to the special attention of all wise 
men, more especially the wise men of the east. As to the fools, 
everybody knows they are so scarce now-a-days, that I hereby 
snap my fingers and defy them. 



J>82 



^Sketches, p. 165. In her Southern Tour, published in 1831, Mrs. Royall wrote: 
"Besides the collector [at the custom house. New Orleans], they have 
'i clerks, gangers, inspectors, &c. Most of these were as shabby a set of gawks, 
as ever disgraced Uncle Sam" (p. 32). 

" This singular expression, now obsolete or obsolescent, was common in the first 
half of the nineteenth century. It was originally the slang of the boatmen on the 
Mississippi and other Western rivers. See C. Schultz, Jr., Travels (1810), II, 145, 
146. The Salem Gazette of June 12, 1812, a few days before war was declared with 
England, printed the following: "Curious Terms of Defiance. New-Orleans 
April 24. 'Half horse half alligator' — has hitherto been the boast of our up-country 
boatmen, when quarreling. The present season however has made a complete 
change. A Tew days ago two of them quarreled in a boat at Natchez, when one of 
them jumping ashore declared with a horrid oath that he was a steamboat. His 
opponent immediately followed him, swearing he was an earthquake and would shake 
him to pieces — and in fact almost literally executed his threat. " The Salem Oazette 
added "It is these monsters of the western wilds that are forcing the people of the 
Atlantic shores into an unnecessary and ruinous war"' (p. 4-1). 

^'New York Mirror, February 19, 1831, VIII, 260. 261. The indefatigable Pauld- 
ing contributed to the Unitea States and Democratic Review for April, 1851, an article 
called "Uncle Sam and his 'B'hoys, '" from which the following is extracted: "Uncle 
Sam talks 'big' sometimes, like his old dad, Squire Bull, who was reckoned the 
greatest bragger of his day, till Uncle Sam grew up and disputed the point with him" 
(XXVIII, 299). 



44 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

In 1835 David Crockett wrote: 

"Them that danced should pay the piper; but I suppose 
they will all say as the young man said of the old quaker when 
the robbers stopped the mail-coach. The old gentleman gave 
up his purse; the young man held back: a pistol was presented 
at him: 'Oh/ says he, 'don't shoot; old uncle always pays 
for me!' So poor old Uncle Sam, I suppose, will pay for all: 
and I am glad that the funding system has paid off our national 
debt, so that a few hundreds of thousands won't hurt us much 
now. General Jackson can pay off the post-office debt as he 
said he would the old debt, by borrowing; and then we'll burn 
all the books and old extra contracts, and begin dee novo, as 
the Latin scholars say in Congress. "^^ 

In 1835 Charles J. Latrobe, Australian governor and 
traveller, remarked: 

"You may recollect I mentioned in a former letter, a certain 
double-barrelled fowling-piece which the commissioner had 
brought away from a government agent on the Missouri. It 
had kept us company ever since, going among us generally by 
the name of 'Uncle Sam,' such was the soubriquet given by the 
Americans to the General Government, from the usual initials 
U. S. or United States, affixed upon Government property."" 



n84 



In 1835 Edward S. Abdy, an Englishman, observed: 

"I mention this trifling circumstance, because it illustrates 
a striking feature in the national character. 'Uncle Sam' 
is the veriest slave of habit in existence, and dislikes trouble. 
He would rather put up with an inconvenience than put him- 
self out of his way." 

In a note he added : 

"This appellation corresponds with our 'John Bull'; and is 
supposed to be derived from the initials U. S. As the nation 
has not yet been able to fix upon a distinctive title, perhaps 
that of Caucasia would not be inappropriate."^^ 

On December 28, 1836, General George A. McCall said : 
"At the usual hour for the examination of recruits, one bright 



** Toiir to the North and Down East, p. 202. Uncle Sam had previously figjired 
in the Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834), p. 86. 
"The Rambler in America, I, 160. 
'"Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States, II, 301. 



1908.] Uncle Sam-. 45 

spring morning, the surgeon and myself having assembled 
in my office high up in Market Street for the purpose I have 
stated, the sergeant brought, among other candidates for 
the honor of serving * Uncle Sam, ' a perfect Hercules in 
physical Development. "^® 

In 1838 there appeared in Bentley's Miscellany a series 
of articles called Uncle Sam's Peculiarities, from which 
the following is extracted : 

"We must here digress from our immediate subject, for 
the purpose of properly introducing one of the most celebrated 
characters now talked of. This personage, Major Jack Dovming 
by name, is in everybody's notice as a great American jester, 
but, like Uncle Sam, is but a name. There may originally have 
been a Major Jack Downing, a comical 'military' officer, and 
there may also have been an Uncle Sam in Boston, whose 
initials happening to be the same as the initial letters 
of the United States was, from a postmaster, or government 
contractor of Massachusetts Bay, converted into the imperson- 
ation, or great federal representative of the twenty-six States, 
including Jonathan's own five particular States, New Hamp- 
shire, Connecticut, New England, Massachusetts, and Rhode 
Island. But Major Jack and Uncle Sam of Boston (mortal 
Sam) both sleep with their forefathers, if they ever had any, 
leaving only their names behind; glorious Jack being famous 
in story, and Uncle Sam's initials, U. S., being wedded to E. 
Pluribus unum, for better or worse, until the twenty-six stars 
of North America shall be separated by some violent effort 
of nature, or a general convulsion of Yankee Republicanism. 
But if Major Jack is never seen in propria persona, he is some- 
times represented by others, who prefer his name to their own. 
One of Mister Joseph Miller's jokes is of a fanatic, who gave 
thanks for being shown some relicts in a monastery, and added, 
'This is the sixteenth head of John the Baptist I have seen in 
Italy.' A traveller in the United States is reminded of this 
Joe, and of King Dick's 'six Richmonds in the field,' by hearing 
of Major Jack Downing of American ubiquity, who is spread 
abroad and met with as a resident in most of the large towns 
and many of the quiet villages, and is moreover, one of the 
most witty correspondents of that many-headed monster, 
the Public Press. . . . The military are for a minute 
obstructed by six gaily-painted covered carts filled with mer- 
chandise, which their owners, the 'western merchants,' are 



"Letters from the Frontiers (186S), p. 335. See also p. 354. This is the first 
use of the term by an army officer that I have noted. 



46 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

carrying home; one 'fresh spring-water' locomotive from Long 
Island, an 'American ginger champagne ' waggon, and a dirty cart 
carrying the mail of 'U. S. ' (Uncle Sam, or United States)."*^ 

In 1839 Marryat wrote : 

" I fell in with Major F , with whom I had been previously 

acquainted, who informed methat he was about to send a detach- 
ment of troops from Green Bay to Fort Winnebago, across 
the Wisconsin territory. As this afforded me an opportunity 
of seeing the country, which seldom occurs, I availed myself 
of an offer to join the party. The detachment consisted of 
about one hundred recruits, nearly the whole of them Canada 
patriots, as they are usually called, who, having failed in taking 
the provinces from John Bull, were fain to accept the shilling 
from uncle Sam. "*^ 

Having thus traced the history of Uncle Sam from its 
inception in 1813 down to 1840, previous to which no 
example has hitherto been cited, let us now turn our atten- 
tion to the origin of the term. Three explanations have 
been advanced. Nearly the entire third page of the Boston 
Sunday Herald of August 9, 1903, was filled with an article 
and illustrations on the "Nova Scotia Home of Uncle Sam. 
Origin of his Odd Costume. Sam Slick of Slickville, the 
Product of Judge Haliburton's Pen, and his Sayings." The 
writer said: "Strange as it may seem, one must go beyond 
the borders of the United States to find the birthplace of 
'Uncle Sam.' " Then followed a description of Windsor, 
where Judge Haliburton was born. The notion is apparently 
based wholly on the pseudonym assumed by Judge Hali- 
burton — "Sam Slick." This newspaper yarn does not, 
of course, deserve serious consideration, and may be dis- 
missed with the remark that Thomas Chandler Haliburton, 
having been born December 17, 1796, was less than sixteen 
years old at the outbreak of the war with England, and that 
it was not until 1835 that he employed the pseudonym 
of "Sam Slick. "»» 



"Bentley's Miscellany, IV, 43, 294. 

*' Diary in America, II, 42, 43. 

" The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville, first 
appeared in the columns of the Nova Scotian in 1835-1836, and was first published 
in book form at Halifax in 1837. In a conversation supposed to have taken place 



1908.] 



Uncle Sam. 47 



The most popular explanation of the origin of Uncle 
Sam first appeared in print, so far as I have been able to 
ascertain, in John Frost's Book of the Navy, published in 
1842. It did not originate with Frost, and no doubt he 
obtained it from a newspaper. It is as follows:^'* 

" Origin of ' Uncle Sam. ' 

"Much learning and research have been exercised in tracing 
the origin of odd names, and odd sayings, which, taking their 
rise in some trifling occurrence or event, easily explained or 
well understood for a time, yet, in the course of years, becoming 



between Edward Everett and Sam Slick, the latter remarked: "Well, I don't know, 
said I, but somehow or another, I guess you'd found preaching the best speculation 
in the long run; them are Unitarians pay better than Uncle Sam (we call, said the 
Clockmaker, the American public Uncle Sam, as you caii the British, John Bull)" 
(The Clockmaker, second edition. Concord, 1838, p. 43). 

Mr. Robert G. Haliburton relates this anecdote of Judge Haliburton: "On his 
arrival in London, the son of Lord Abinger (the famous Sir James Scarlett) who 
was confined to his bed, asked him to call on his father, as there was a question which 
he would like to put to him. When he called, his Lordship said, 'I am convinced 
that there is a veritable Sara Slick in the flesh now selling clocks to the Bluenoses. 
Am I right?' 'No,' replied the Judge, 'there is no such person. He was a pure 
accident. I never intended to describe a Yankee clockmaker or Yankee dialect; 
but Sam Slick slipped into my book before I was aware of it, and once there he was 
there to stay'" (in Haliburton: a Centenary Chaplet, Toronto, 1897, pp. 25, 26). 
""Book of the Navy, pp. 297. 298. The story occurs in the "Naval Anecdotes" 
in the Appendix. Some of the stories and songs in this Appendix appear in the 
Supplement to Nilss' Register, 1816, IX; but the Wilson story is not there. 

As an illustration of the extraordinary changes undergone in repetition, I give 
the story as it was printed in 1870 by Brewer in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: 
"Sam. Uncle Sam. The United States government. Mr. Frost tells us that the 
inspectors of Elbert Anderson's store on the Hudson were Ebenezer and his uncle 
Samuel Wilson, the latter of whom superintended in person the workmen, and went 
by the name of 'Uncle Sam.' The stores were marked E.A. — U.S. (^Elbert An- 
derson, United States), and one of the employers being asked the meaning, said U. S. 
stood for 'Uncle Sam.' The joke took, and in the War of Independence the men 
carried it 'with them, and it became stereotyped" (p. 783). 

Brewer goes on to say: " To stand Sam. To be made to pay the reckoning. This 
is an Americanism, and arose from the letters U. S. on the knapsacks of the soldiers. 
The government of Uncle Sam has to pay or 'stand Sam' for all. (See above.)" 
In 1871 DeVere wrote: "In the army, it -seems, even this designation [i. e. Uncle 
Sam] was deemed too full and formal, and, as early as the year 1827, it became a 
familiar saying among soldiers, to stand Sam, whenever drinks or refreshments of 
any kind had to be paid for. As they were accustomed to see Uncle Sam. pay for 
all their wants, to stand Sam, became to their minds equivalent to the ordinary 
slang phrase: to stand treat" (p. 251). In 1891 J. Maitland said: "Sam, 'to stand 
Sam' (Amer.), to stand treat" (American Slang Dictionarj', p. 229). And in 1891 
J. M. Di.von wrote: "Sam. — To stand Sam — to entertain friends; to pay for refresh- 
ments. U. Sam is a contraction for 'Uncle Sam,' a jocular name for the U. S. 
Government. The phrase, therefore, originally means to pay all expenses, as the 
Government does" (Dictionary of Idiomatic English Phrases, p. 282). Brewer's 
statement, having been adopted by several writers, requires consideration. As 



48 Arnerican Antiquarian Society. [April, 

involved in mystery, assume an importance equal at least 
to the skill and ingenuitj' required to explain or trace them to 
their origin. 'The Swan with two necks' — 'The Bull and 
Mouth' — 'All my eye, Betty Martin,' and many others, are 
of this character — and who knows but, an hundred years hence, 
some 'learned commentator' may puzzle his brain to furnish 
some ingenious explanation of the origin of the national appella- 
tion placed at the head of this article. To aid him, therefore, 
in this research, I will state the facts as they occurred under 
my own eye. 

"Immediately after the declaration of the last war with 
England, Elbert Anderson, of New-York, then a Contractor, 
visited Troy, on the Hudson, where was concentrated, and 
where he purchased, a large quantity of pro\isions — beef, 



a matter of fact, not only is the phrase "to stand Sam" — meaning "to be answerable 
for," "to become surety for," "to pay the reckoning," or "to pay for the drinks, " 
— not an Americanism, but it has never, so far as I know, even been employed in 
this country. The words "Sam" and "Sammy" have been used in various senses 
in English dialects for a hundred and thirty years, an instance dated 1777 being recorded 
in the English Dialect Dictionary. To the examples of "upon my Sam," an exple- 
tive, quoted in the same work from Frank's Nine Days (1879), p. 12, and Zack's 
On Trial (1899), p. 220, may be added another from R. Marsh's Tom Ossington's 
Ghost (1900), p. 216. "Sammy," meaning "foolish, silly," was recognized as 
early as 1823 in Pierce Egan's edition of Grose's Classical Dictionary; and examples 
dated 1837 and 1843 are quoted in Farmer and Henley's Slang and its Analogues 
(1903). The expression "to stand Sam" or "to stand Sammy" is recognized in 
Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words (1847), in Wright's Diction- 
ary of Obsolete and Provincial English (1857), in Hotten's Dictionary of Modern 
Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (1859), in Barrfere and Leland's Dictionary of Slang, 
Jargon & Cant (1890), in Farmer and Henley's Slang and its Analogues (1903), and 
in the English Dialect Dictionary. "Landlady," wrote Moncrieff in 1823, "serve 
them with a glass of tape, all round; and I'll stand Sammy" (Tom and Jerry, III, 5). 
Besides this extract. Farmer and Henley quote others from Ainaworth's Rookwood 
(1834), Hindley's Cheap Jack (1876), Black's White Heather (1886), Henley's 
Villon's Good-Night (1887), Licensed Victuallers' Gazette (1890), and Milliken's 
'Arry Ballads (1890); and to these may be added others from Punch, August 20, 
1881, LXXXI, 75, and from W. De Morgan's Joseph Vance (1906), p. 465. Every 
known example is from a British author. 

During the ascendancy of the Know-Nothing party, however, the word "Sam" 
was used in this country for a brief period. "The allusion," wrote Farmer in 1889, 
"is to Uncle Sam, the national sobriquet, the Know Nothings claiming that in a 
nation mostly made up of immigrants, only native-born citizens should possess and 
exercise privileges and powers" (Americanisms Old and New, p. 470). "The name," 
said H. F. Reddall in 1892, "contains, of course, an allusion to 'Uncle Sam,' the 
personification of the government of the United States" (Fact, Fancy, and Fable, 
p. 452). A few examples may be given. In a letter dated Randolph, Pennsylvania, 
July 14, 1855, a correspondent said: "I take it for granted that you are with us 
heart and hand in the new movement known as 'Know Somethings;' but I believe 
quite as readily recognized under the Yankee cognomen, 'Jonathan.' The order 
is fully organized in this State, and is progressing finely. All the secret organiza- 
tions therefore of this character are blended, and E. Pluribus Unum. The ' Sams ' 
are going over en masse, and although some of our election returns may be credited 
to Sam, yet I assure you that all candidates elect are the workmanship of Jonathan. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 49 

pork, &c. The inspectors of these articles at that place were 
Messrs. Ebenezer and Samuel Wilson. The latter gentleman 
(invariably known as 'Uncle Sam') generally superintended 
in person a large number of workmen, who, on this occasion, 
were employed in overhauling the provisions purchased by 
the contractor for the army. The casks were marked E, A. — 
U. S. This work fell to the lot of a facetious fellow in the 
employ of the Messrs. Wilson, who, on being asked by some 
of his fellow-workmen the meaning of the mark (for the letters 
U. S., for United States, were then almost entirely new to them,) 
said 'he did not know, unless it meant Elbert Anderson and 
Uncle Sam' — alluding exclusively, then, to the said 'Uncle 
Sam' Wilson. The joke took among the workmen, passed 
currently; and 'Uncle Sam' himself being present, was occa- 



Sam is dead! Plucked up by the rootsi Buried in cottonl " (Kansas Herald of 
Freedom, August 4, 1855, p. 4—3). On February 28, 1856, Congressman Samuel 
Carruthers wrote: "I went twice (and but t'n'ice), into their [Know-Nothing] councils. 
I 'saw Sam.' It took two visits to see him all over. I made them. I saw enough 
and determined never to see his face again" (in H. J. Desmond's Know-Nothing 
Party, 1905, p. 82). In 1858 Governor Wise of Virginia wrote to a committee of 
the Tammany Society: "As to your other motto — 'Civil and Religious Liberty' — 
ours was saved by the Virginia Democracy in 1855. We struck the dark lantern 
out of the hands of ineffable Sam, and none now are found so poor as ' hurrah! ' 
for him" (New York Tribune, January 11, 1858, p. 2-6). In 1905 H. J. Desmond 
remarked: " Those inducted into the first degree do not appear to have been informed 
as to the name of the order. They were brought into 'the august presence 
of Sam.' ... In Illinois the Know-Nothing order split into two factions, 
'the Sams' insisting upon an anti-Catholic program and 'the Jonathans' proposing 
not to antagonize Catholics who owed no civil allegiance as distinguished from 
spiritual allegiance to the Pope. The Jonathans triumphed" (Know-Nothing 
Party, pp. 54, 103). Exactly what the Know-Nothings meant by "Sam" is not 
apparent from these extracts; but fortunately the question need not further detain us. 
One more statement may be considered here. In 1882 A. S. Palmer remarked: 
"Sambo, the ordinary nickname for a negro, often mistaken as a pet name formed 
from Sam, Samuel, ... is really borrowed from his Spanish appellation 
zambo, ... A connexion was sometimes imagined perhaps with Uncle 
Sam, a poptilar name for the United States" (Folk-Etymology, pp. 338, 339). It 
may be doubted whether any one has ever seriously advanced the notion that Sambo 
is formed from Sam or Samuel, or that there is a connection between Sambo and 
Uncle Sam. "This Negre Sambo comes to me, " wrote R. Ligon in 1657, "and seeing 
the needle wag, desired to know the reason of its stirring" (True & Exact 
History of the Island of Barbados, pp. 49, 50, 54). Before 1700 we read of "Sambo 
negro helping caring goods" (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 
XXXIV, 98). In the Boston News-Letter of October 2, 1704, an advertisement 
stated that "There is a Negro man taken up . . . calls himself Sambo" 
(p. 2-2). In 1716 "Sambo a negro servant" was married to Hagar (New England 
Historical and Genealogical Register. XXXVIII, 27). In the Boston Gazette of 
July 22, 1765, "a Negro Man named Sam6o " was advertised as a runaway (p. 4-3). 
In the Massachusetts Spy of February 17, 1813, we read: "The moan of the poor 
black man interrupted the sweet song of the mocking bird. We could not dis- 
tinguish all the voices that rose from the field, but the ear caught a fragment of 
the poor negro's song: — The lash of the driver forced a scream of anguish that 
moment from Sambo, and we heard no more" (p. 4-2). 



50 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

sionall}^ rallied by them on the increasing extent of his 
possessions. 

"Many of these workmen being of a character denominated 
'food for powder,' were found shortly after following the 
recruiting drum, and pushing toward the frontier lines, for 
the double purpose of meeting the enemy, and of eating the 
provisions they had lately laboured to put in good order. 
Their old jokes of course accompanied them, and, before the 
first campaign ended, this identical one first appeared in print — 
it gained favour rapidly, till it penetrated and was recognized 
in every part of our country, and will, no doubt, continue so 
while the United States remain a nation. It originated pre- 
cisely as above stated; and the writer of this article distinctly 
recollects remarking, at the time when it first appeared in print, 
to a person who was equally aware of its origin, how odd it would 
be should this silly joke, originating in the midst of beef, pork, 
pickle, mud, salt, and hoop-poles, eventually become a national 
cognomen. " 

This story was introduced by Bartlett into his Dictionary 
of Americanisms in 1848; was repeated, with variations, 
by John F. Watson^^ in 1844 and again in 1846; was given, 

®^ Watson's version of 1844 is as follows: "While on this subject, it may be as well 
to give a passing notice of another national name just growing into common use — 
we mean the term ' Uncle Sam, ' which first came into use in the time of the last war, 
with England; but the cause of its origin is still unknown to millions of our people. 
— The name grew out of the letters E. A. — U. S., marked upon the army provisions, 
barrelled up at Troy, for the contractor, Elbert Anderson, and implied the initials 
of his name, and U. S. for the United States. In happened that these provisions 
were inspected there by Samuel Wilson, usually called, among his hired men, ' Uncle 
Sam. ' One of his workmen, on being asked the meaning of the letters, E. A. — U.S., 
replied, archly, it meant Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam — (Wilson). The joke 
went round merrily among the men, some of whom going afterwards to the frontiers, 
and there partaking of the very provisions they had assisted to pack and mark, 
still adhered to calling it Uncle Sam; and as every thing else of the army appoint- 
ments bore also the letters U. S., Uncle Sam became a ready name, first for all that 
appertained to the United States, and, finally, for the United States itself — a cognomen 
which is as likely to be perpetuated, as that of John Bull for old England" (Annals 
of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, II, 335). 

Watson's version of 1846 differed slightly from the above: " Uncle Sam, is another 
national appellation applied to us. by ourselves, and which, as it is growing into 
popular use, and was first used at Troy, New York, it may be interesting to explain, 
to wit: The name grew out of the letters E. A. U. S. marked upon the army pro- 
visions, barrelled up at Troy, during the last war with England, under the contract 
of Elbert Anderson; and implied his name, and U. S. the United States. The 
inspector of those provisions, was Samuei Wilson, who was usually called by the 
people. Uncle Sam. It so happened that one of the workmen, being asked the mean- 
ing of the initials on the casks, &c., waggishly replied, they meant Elbert Anderson 
and Uncle Sam — Wilson. The joke took; and afterwards, when some of the same 
men were on the frontiers, and saw the same kind of provisions arriving to their 
use, they would jocosely say, here comes Uncle Sam. From thence it came to pass, 



1908.] 



Uncle Sam. 51 



also with variations, by Arthur James Weise^^ in 187G, in 
1886, and again in 1891; and is now found in ahnost every 

that whenever they saw the initials U. S., on any class of stores, they were equally 
called Uncle Sam's; and finally, it came by an easy transition, to be applied to the 
United States itself" (Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State, p. 243). 

The bibliography of Watson's books on Philadelphia and New York requires a 
note. In 1S30 he published, in one volume, Annals of Philadelphia, being a Collec- 
tion of Memoirs, Anecdotes & Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants from the 
Days of the Pilgrim Founders. (Collation: Title, 1 p.; Copyright, 1 p.; Ad- 
vertisement, pp. iii, iv; Preface, pp. v-vii; Contents, pp. viii-xii; Annals of 
Philadelphia, pp. 1-740; Appendix: containing Olden Time Researches & 
Reminiscences, of New York City, pp. 1-78.) In 1832 he published 
Historic Tales of Olden Time: concerning the Early Settlement and Advance- 
ment of New York City and State. In 1833 he published Historic Tales 
of Olden Time, concerning the Early Settlement and Progress of Philadelphia and 
Pennsylvania. In 1844 he published, in two volumes. Annals of Philadelphia and 
Pennsylvania, in the Olden Time; being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and 
Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants, and of the Earliest Settlements of the 
inland part of Pennsylvania, from the Days of the Founders. This work was copy- 
righted in 1843, though the title page bears the date 1844. In the advertisement, 
which is dated July, 1842, Watson says: "The reader will please observe, that this 
work having been closed in Manuscript, in 1842, that therefore, all reference to any 
given number of years back, respecting things passed or done so many 'years ago,' 
is to be understood as counting backward from the year 1842" (p. xi). In 1846 he 
published Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State, in the Olden Time. 
In 1857 he published, in two volumes, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, 
in the Olden Time. This edition contains some matter not in the 1844 edition. 
Finally, in 1877, Willis P. Hazard published, in three volumes, the Annals of Phila- 
delphia and Pennsylvania, the first two volumes being identical with the 1857 edition 
of Watson's work, the third volume an addition by Hazard. The Uncle Sam story 
first appeared in the 1844 edition of Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania 
(II, 335); and in the 1846 edition of Annals and Occurrences of New York City and 
State, in the Olden Time (p. 243), though the two accounts, as seen above, differ 
somewhat. 

°^In 1876 Mr. Weise gave the following account: "Among the well known citi- 
zens of Troy in 1812, was Samuel Wilson. Being one of the first settlers, and besides 
having a kind and benevolent disposition, he won the esteem and affection of every- 
body in the village, and was more generally designated as Uncle Sam than by his 
proper name. It is related that on one occasion his youngest son wandered away 
from home and was lost. A gentleman found him crying in a strange place, and 
asked him whose boy he was, and received for an answer, that he was Uncle Sam's 
boy. By this appellation the father was readily recognized and he was returned 
to his parents. During the military operations along the northern border in the 
war of 1812, Samuel and Ebenezer Wilson were engaged in an extensive slaughtering 
business, employing about one hundred men, and were slaughtering weekly more 
than one thousand head of cattle. During this year, he and his brother received 
a contract from Elbert Anderson, Jr., an army contractor, to supply the troops 
stationed at Greenbush with beef, 'packed in full bound barrels of white oak.' 
Samuel Wilson was also appointed at this time Inspector of beef for the army, and 
was accustomed in this line of duty to mark all the barrels of meat passing his 
inspection with the abbreviated title U. S. of the United States. In the army at 
the cantonment at Greenbush, there were a number of soldiers who had enlisted 
in Troy, and to whom 'Uncle Sam' and his business were well known. The beef 
received from Troy, they always alluded to as Uncle Sam's beef, and the other soldiers 
without any inquiry began to recognize the letters U. S. as the initial designation 
of Uncle Sam. A contractor from the northern lines strengthened this impression 



52 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

book of reference.^^ Before submitting the story to critical 
examination, let us see who Anderson and the Wilsons were. 
Elbert Anderson, Jr., of whom we have already caught 



thereafter, when, purchasing a large quantity of beef in Troy, he advertised 
that he had received a supply of Uncle Sam's beef of a superior quality. 
The name 'Uncle Sam,' a few only knowing its derivation, became in a 
little while the recognized familiar designation of the United States, and is 
now as well known to the world as is the appellation John Bull" (History of the 
City of Troy, p. 91). 

Mr. Weise's version of 1891, differing somewhat from the above, is as follows: 
" Among the contractors supplying tlje Army of the North with provisions was 
Elbert Anderson, jr., who, on October 1st, advertised in the Troy and Albany news- 
papers for proposals for 'two thousand barrels of prime pork and three hundred 
bairels of prime beef,' to be delivered to him in the months of January, February, 
March, and April, at Waterford, Troy, Alliany, and New York. Ebenezer and 
Samuel Wilson, who were then extensively engaged in slaughtering cattle in the 
village, contracted to furnish him a quantity of beef 'packed in full-bound barrels 
of white oak. ' From time to time they delivered it at the camp at Greenbush, 
where the soldiers from Troy designated it as 'Uncle Sam's, ' implying that it was 
furnished by Samuel Wilson, whom they and other people of the village were accus- 
tomed to call ' Uncle Sam. ' The other recruits, thinking that the term was applied 
to the letters U. S., stamped upon the barrels by the government inspector of beef, 
began using the appellation 'Uncle Sam' figuratively for the United States, in the 
same way that the name 'John Bull' is used to designate the English nation" (Troy's 
One Hundred Years, p. 76). 

Mr. Weise also gave the story in his City of Troy and its Vicinity (1886), 
p. 321. 

'^ These of course need not be specified. In the Boston Daily Advertiser of April 
12, 1902, was printed an article headed "Origin of the Term Uncle Sam. A Story 
that is Vouched for by Rev. G. F. Merriam — The Original 'Uncle Sam' House." 
It is in part as follows: "Sterling. Apr. 11. — Rev. G. F. Merriam of Mt. Kisco, 
N. Y., who is in Sterling as a guest of his son and daughter, told a story of the origin 
of the term ' Uncle Sam, ' as applied to the United States. He said a farm in 
Mason, N. H., belonging to the estate of Mrs. Persis Wilson, who died recently, 
and which estate he was engaged in settling, was the birthplace and boyhood home 
of Uncle Samuel Wilson, who was the original 'Uncle Sam.' The story, vouched 
for by Rev. Mr. Merriam, ... is this: — Samuel Wilson was one of a family 
of 12 children, . . and he and his younger brother, Edward, located when 

they were young men, in Albany, N. Y., and at the time of the war of 1812, became 
extensive contractors for government supplies. They were at this time well known 
in the vicinity of Albany as 'Uncle Sam' and 'Uncle Ned.' The packages of sup- 
plies when sent away to United States government supply depots, were marked 
'U.S.,' and people sometimes questioned what those magic letters stood for. They 
were told that as the packages came from Uncle Sam Wilson, they of course meant 
'Uncle Sam,' and from this little thing the name spread, until the government itself 
was referred to as Uncle Sam. The farm where these men lived as boys, fell into 
the hands of another brother, Capt. Thomas Wilson, and then to his son. Deacon 
J. B. Wilson, who died several years since, and his widow, Mrs. Persis Wilson, lived 
there until her death last winter. Rev. Mr. Merriam was a particular friend of the 
family, and as executor is attending to the sale of the property. The house contains 
many relics . . . and many historic articles, the sale of which, Apr. 30, will 
doubtless attract many of the curiosity hunters. The original 'Uncle Sam' house 
is standing, although a new house has been erected near by, and everything is to be 
sold" (p. 4-6). Edward Wilson was older than either Ebenezer or Samuel. A 
letter addressed in 1902 to the Rev. Mr. Merriam brought no reply. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 53 

a glimpse,^* need not detain us long. The following adver- 
tisement appeared in several Albany, Troy, and New York 
newspapers in 1812 and 1813 : 

"Proposals for Beef and Pork. 

^'QEALED Proposals will be received through the medium 
O of the Post-Offices at Albany and New- York, directed 
to the subscriber, until the 25th of October, for 2000 barrels 
PRIME PORK and 3000 barrels PRIME BEEF, to be delivered 
in the months of January, February, March and April, at 
Waterford, Troy, Albany and New- York. The whole to be 
put up in full bound barrels of white oak. No proposals need 
be offered for less than one hundred barrels. 20 per cent 
will be paid in advance at the time of executing the contract, 
20 per cent on the first day of January, and 20 per cent the 
first day of March, the remainder on the first day of May, 1813. 
The Contractor reserves to himself the privilege of choosing 
his inspector in the counties the provisions are put up in — 
The preference will be given to those whose reputation and 
security will insure the faithful compliance of the terms of 
the contract. 

"ELBERT ANDERSON, Jun. 

" October 1st, 1812. Army Contractor. "^^ 



See p. 32, note 47, above. 

^Albany Gazette, October 5, 1812, p. 3-5. The same advertisement appeared 
in the Troy Post, of October 6, p. 3-4, of October 13, p. 3-4, and of October 20, pp. 
3-4; and in the New York Herald of January 23, 1813, p. 4-4, though in the last 
the advertisement was dated October 17. 

I have noted several other references to Anderson. In the New York Evening} 
Post of October 10, 1812, appeared the following: "*S°"Col. Mapes and the officers 
under his command, in behalf of their men, return thanks to Elbert Anderson, .Tunr. 
Esq. for his liberal present of 100 bu.shels of Potatoes, 2 boxefi of Chocolate, and 
1 box of Tea— also, a waggon load of Potatoes from Saml. Hobart and Stephen 
Striker, on behalf of the inhabitants of Gravesend; ..." (p. 2-5). In the 
Albany Gazette of December 24, 1812, was printed a letter from Anderson himself 
(p. 3-4): 

"Messrs. Websters and Skinners, 

"A statement having appeared in your paper, purporting to be the substance 
of a declaration made by Col Thorn, that 'two or three thousand barrels of pro- 
visions have been deposited within a mile and a half of the Canada line. ' As that 
statement may mislead the public and invite the enemy to encroachments, I beg 
leave to state thro your paper, that there is not more provisions deposited or left 
near the line than is sufficient for the subsistence of the men there stationed for 
the winter: the surplus being removed, to my certain knowledge, to Burlington, 
and other places of presumed safety, and I believe the same care and prudent pre- 
caution has been taken as respects the munitions of war that were at Champlain. 

"ELBERT ANDERSON, Jun. 
"Albany, Dec. 19, 1812. Army Contractor." 



54 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

On November 23, 1757, Edward Wilson, said to have 
been born July 6, 1734,^^ at West Cambridge (now Arlington), 
Massachusetts, married Lucy Francis of Medford.^^ At 
West Cambridge were born Ebenezer Wilson on August 18, 
1763, and Samuel Wilson on September 13, 1768. About 
1780 Edward Wilson took his family to Mason, New Hamp- 
shire, and later he went to Troy.^^ Ebenezer and Samuel 
Wilson removed to Troy about 1789 and soon became 
prominent in the life of the young town. In September, 
1805, the following advertisement appeared in Troy 
newspapers: 

"SLAUGHTERING & PACKING 

"The undersigned having two large and convenient 
SLAUGHTER-HOUSES, beg leave to acquaint their cus- 
tomers and others, that they will be enabled to kill, cut 
and pack 150 head of Cattle per day; and, from their local 
situation, pledge themselves to accommodate those who may 
favour them with a call, on terms as low as can be obtained 
in the State. 

"They have on hand a large supply of BARRELS and SALT, 
which will be disposed of on the lowest terms. 

"All those who shall be under the necessity of waiting 24 
hours for their Cattle to be slaughtered, shall have them pas- 
tured free of expence. 

E. & S. WILSON. 
" Troy, September 17, 1805. "•' 

In the Troy Post of October 6, 1812, appeared this para- 
graph, which may or may not refer to the Wilsons: 

"We are informed that one house in this town has paid 
Twenty Thousand Dollars during the last month for transport- 
ing provisions, flour, whiskey, &c from this place to Platts- 
burgh, for the use of the army of the North" (p. 3-3). 

** This statement is made in J. B. Hill's History of Mason (1858), p. 209; but there 
is no record of his birth in the Vital Records of Arlington (1S04). 

*'Lucy Francis was born March 12, 1738-39 (Vital Records of Medford, 1907, 
p. 60), and died at Mason, December 8, 1835. 

*' For the Wilsons, see, besides the books by Mr. Weise cited above. Hill's History 
ot Mason, p. 209; Cutter's History of Arlington (1880), p. 323; Vital Records of 
Arlington, pp. 47, 167. Edward and Lucy Wilson had thirteen children. 

^'Northern Budget, September 17, 1805, p. 3-4; September 24, p. 4-1; October 
1 , p. 4-2. The same advertisement, except that the date was changed to September 
24, appeared in the Troy Gazette of September 24, 1805, p. 3-4. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 55 

In the same paper of June 1, 1813, under the head of 
"HOGS wanted," was printed this advertisement: 

"BoARDMAN, Mann & Co. wish to purchase One Hundred 
and Twenty thrifty Barrow SHOTES, for which Cash will 
be paid on delivery at their Stillhouse in Troy. For further 
particulars inquire at the store of WILSON, MANN & Co." 
(p. 2-1). 

In the Troy Post of September 28, 1813 (p. 3-4), appeared 

the following: 

" NOTICE 

"The Copartnership of the subscribers, under the firm of 

Wilson, Mann & Co. is by mutual Consent this day dissolved. 

All persons indebted to, or that have any demands against said 

firm are requested to call on James Mann for settlement, who 

is duly authorized to settle the same. 

" Ebenezer Wilson 

"James Mann 

"Samuel Wilson 

"Troy, Sept 28, 1813. 
" N. B. The Business in future ^dll be conducted by James 
Mann at the store lately occupied by Wilson, Mann & Co.""° 

Edward Wilson, the father of the two brothers, died at 
Troy, June 17, 1816; but neither the Troy nor the Albany 
papers contained an obituary notice.^^^ Ebenezer Wilson 
died July 22, 1825, the following notice appearing in the 
New York Commercial Advertiser: 

"New York, Saturday, July 23. 

"Died— Suddenly, yesterday afternoon, Mr. Ebenezer Wilson, 
Sen. aged 63. Mr. W. has for years been extensively engaged 
in business as an inspector and packer of Beef both in Troy, 

"» The notice was repeated in the Troy Post of October 12. 19. and 26. The busi- 
ness of the firm was dry goods and groceries. In spite of the dissolution of 
partnership, the advertisement of Wilson, Mann & Co., dated May 7. 1813. appeared 
in the Troy Post of October 12. 1813. 

James Mann, who continued the business, was a son of Benjamin Mann of Keene, 
New Hampshire. Several years ago I had a correspondence with Mrs. Louise 
Benson a descendant of Benjamin Mam,. Mrs. Benson merely spoke of the existence 
in her family of the tradition about the WUson story, but was unable to give me 
anv new facts. 

"'The Troy Post of June 17. 1817, (p. 3-3). contained a notice of the mamage 
on June 9 of Elizabeth Wilson, a daughter of Ebenezer Wilson, and the Rev. James 
Ogilvie of New York. 



56 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

and this cit3\ He was an ornament to the christian church, 
and a worthy, industrious, and excellent man in all the duties 
of life."^'' 

In the Troy Director>' (I, 61) for 1829, the first published, 
is found this entry: "Wilson, Samuel, ferry continued," — 
which, Miss Jessie F. Wheeler wTites me,^^^ ''means, I suppose, 
Ferr)^ Street continued up the hill." Samuel Wilson died 
at Troy on July 31, 1854. Of the many notices which 
appeared in the Troy papers, the following, signed "Trojan," 
is the most interesting : 

"Death of the late Samuel Wilson. 

"When an indi\'idual passes from us, who has been long 
known, and whose business connections have been very exten- 
sive, it is proper that some thing more than a mere passing notice 
should be taken of his death, as well as a just allusions [sic] 
to some of the principal acts of his life. The subject of this 
brief • notice was an early pioneer in the settlement of this 
place, commencing in 1793, and he took an active part in the 
extension of all the business facilities adopted by himself and 
his associat-es, and was himself engaged in, and prosecuted 
successfully, at least four distinct kinds of business. emplo>ang 
about 200 hands constanth^ while he took the over-sight of 
each particular branch, in connection with his brother Eben. — 
He prosecuted the mercantile business in connection with 
slooping; the brick-making business very extensively; the 
distillery business; farming, on a pretty large scale, and the 
slaughtering business on an extensive plan. During the war 
of 1812 he supplied the army verj' generally, especially at the 
north, from his extensive yards. His tact for managing laborers 

'"Quoted in the Troy Sentinel, July 26, 1825. p. 3-4. Mr. Barton kindly sent me 
the same notice copied from the Albany Argue of July 29, 1825. In his Collections 
on the History of Albany, published in 1867, Joel Munsell quoted (II, 479), under 
the head of "Beef Packing in Albany," an article taken from Knickerbocker contain- 
ing this passage: "In 1830 Albany was not only a great cattle packing centre, but 
the same was true of Troy, Waterford, Lansingburgh and Catskill. Uncle Eb. Wilson 
was at Catskill; Perry and Judson at Albany: C. P. Ives, Lansingburgh; and Capt. 
Turner at Batestown, near Troy. " When this passage was written it is impossible 
to say, as Munsell does not specify the volume or date of Knickerbocker, a magazine 
which began publication in 1833. As, however, the writer specifies the year 1830, 
it is certain that his "Uncle Eb. Wilson" was not identical with our Ebenezer 
Wilson; but the coincidence in name is worth recording. 

"" In the Ubrary of our Society and in that of the New York Historical Society 
I have found various Troy and Albany newspapers, but those files were very incom- 
plete. At my request, Miss Wheeler of the Troy Public Library searched for me 
the files owned by that library; and I am indebted to her for several valuable and 
interesting extracts. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 57 

was very peculiar; he would always say 'Come boys,' instead 
of 'go,' and thereby secured a greater amount of labor than 
ordinary men. — His success in business he mainly attributed 
to a strict system in his plans, and the constant habit of early 
rising, and to this habit he undoubtedly owed his uniform 
good health, and his useful life. He had eight brothers and 
two sisters all of whom were tenacious of this habit, and all 
but two are now dead, but their ages averaged full 80 years 
each. In his political creed he was strictly Republican and 
was warmly attached to the Democratic party, and in the 
election of General Jackson to the Presidency, he took a very 
active part, serving as a standing chairman of the party both 
at his first and second election. In his religious creed he was 
tolerant to all. He was united to no church, but at the age 
of three score years his mind became deeply imbued with 
religion, and feeling his responsibility to his Maker, he solemnly 
dedicated himself to God and united with the Presbyterian 
Church in this city. — His walk and conversation since the 
solemn transition, evinced the sincerity of his profession, and 
he has left a pleasing assurance both to the church and his 
friends that he now ' Rests from his labors and his works follow 
him. "'^°* 

*"* Troy Daily Budget, August 2, 1854, p. 2-3. Other notices of Samuel Wilson 
appeared in the Troy papers. 

"4^ Died — SAMUEL WILSON, aged eighty eight years, died this morning 
at his residence 76 Ferry street. The deceased was one of the oldest inhabitants 
of this city. He came to Troy about the year 1793, and consequently had resided 
here 61 years. He was about the last of those termed 'first settlers.' Mr. W. 
purchased the lands east of the city, now owned by Messers. VAIL and WARREN, 
and occupied by them for farming purposes till about 1820. ^ He then sold them all, 
except about four acres, upon which his present residence stands. He has been 
one of the most active business men of the community, and we can truly say that 
he was an honest and upright man" (Troy Daily Times, July 1, p. 2-3). 

" tS' Samuel B. Wilson, another of our oldest citizens, died at his residence on 
Ferry st. hill this morning. He was about 80 or 90 years of age " ( Troy Daily Budget, 
July 1, p. 2-4). "B." is evidently a printer's error. 

" 9^ Samuel WiUon, aged 88, died yesterday morning at his residence 76 Ferry 
street. Mr. Wilson was one of the oldest inhabitants of the city" (Troy Daily 
Traveller, August 1, p. 2-2). 

"Died. On Monday Morning, Samuel Wilson, in the S8th year of his age. His 
relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend his funeral this (Tuesday) 
afternoon at 3 o'clock, at his late residence. No. 76 Ferry-st. " ( Troy Daily Travel- 
ler, August, 1, p. 2-4). 

"Died. In this city, July 31, Mr. Samuel Wilson, aged 88 years. Funeral ser- 
vices will be held this (Tuesday) afternoon at 3 o'clock, at his late residence, 76 
Ferry st." (Troy Daily Whig, August 1, p. 2-6). The hasty burial may have 
been due to the fact that cholera was then raging in Troy. See Troy Daily Traveller, 
August 2 and 4. 

It will be observed that in the above notices, wxitten for the Troy papers, there 
is no allusion to the Uncle Sam story. In the Albany Evening Journal of .August 
1, 1854, appeared the following, which I copy from the New York Tribune of August 
4: "'Uncle Sam.' — The death of Samuel Wilson, an aged, worthy and formerly 



58 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

Before returning to the story related by Frost, there is 
one further piece of evidence to be presented. Under date 
of Albany September 17, 1812, was printed in the Albany 
Gazette in September and October of that year an advertise- 
ment which was in part as follows : 

"SLAUGHTERING cfc INSPECTION. 

WILSON and KINNICUT, take this method to inform 
their friends and the public in general, that they have 
made considerable improvements in their Slaughter House 
in Albany, where they will put up Beef and Pork on as reason- 
able terms as any body in the state. "^''^ 

While I have been unable to identify the members of 
this firm of Wilson and Kinnicut, the advertisement is of 
interest; and it is certain that there was a Wilson family 



enterprising citizen of Troy, will remind those who were familiar with incidents of 
the War of 1812, of the origin of the popular subriequet [sic] for the 'United States.' 
Mr. Wilson, who waa an extensive packer, had the contract for supplying the northern 
army with beef and pork. He was everywhere known and spoken of as 'Uncle 
Sam, ' and the 'U.S. ' branded on the heads of barrels for the army were at first taken 
to be the initials for 'Uncle Sam' Wilson, but finally lost their local significance 
and became, throughout the army, the familiar term for ' United States. ' The 
Wilsons were among the earliest and most active citizens of Troy. ' Uncle Sam, ' 
who died yesterday, was 84 years old" (p. 3-6). 

The same notice was printed in the Troy Daily Budget of August 2, p. 3-3; and in 
the Troy Daily Whig of August 3, p. 3-2. In the New England Historical and 
Genealogical Register for October, 1854, was printed the following: "Wilson, Mr. 
Samuel, Troy, N. Y. 31 July, ce. 88. It was from this gentleman that the United 
States received the name of Uncle Sam. It came in this way, — Mr. Wilson had 
extensive contracts for supplying the army with pork and beef, in the war of 1812. 
He was then familiarly known as Uncle Sam Wilson. His brand upon his barrels 
was of course U. S. The transition from United States to Uncle Sam was so easy, 
that it was at once made, and the name of the packer of the U. S. provisions was 
immediately transferred to the government, and became famihar, not only through- 
out the army, but the whole country" (VIII, 377). 

^'^ Albany GazeUe, September 24, 1812, p. 1-1; October 12, p. 1-1. The Troy papers 
of September and October, 1812, have been searched in vain for this advertisement. 
It is of course possible that the Wilson of the firm of Wilson and Kinnicut of Albany 
was Samuel Wilson of Troy, but it would be rash to assert their identity. 

The name Kinnicut does not appear in the Albany Directory for 1813, the first 
published. An advertisement dated Jtdy 9, 1805, in regard to "Fresh goods just 
received by Pierce & Kinnicut, " was printed in the Troy Northern Budget of Sep- 
tember 3, 1805 (p. 1-3); and in a previous issue of the same paper occurred the 
name of Robert S. Kinnicut. A notice, dated December 14, 1815, of the dissolution 
by mutual consent of partnership of the firm of R. S. Kinnicut and Zebina Sturtevant 
was printed in the Albany Register of June 7, 1816, (p. 1-3). In the Albany Direc- 
tory for 1813 appeared the name of "Sturdivant, Zebina, grocer" (Munsell's Annals 
of Albany, 1854, V. 89). 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 59 

in Albany and that one or more members of it were named 
Samuel.i^' 

If we compare the facts as brought out in these extracts 
with the story as related by Frost, it must be acknowledged 
that in many respects the latter is not inconsistent with 
the former. It has been proved that Anderson was a 
contractor; that Ebenezer and Samuel Wilson owned a 
slaughtering establishment; and that Ebenezer Wilson at 
least was an inspector.^*''^ If absolute proof is lacking that 
the Wilsons received contracts for the supply of beef, that 
Samuel Wilson was an inspector, and that Samuel Wilson 
was commonly called "Uncle Sam" Wilson, yet these 
statements are so extremely probable that their truth may 
well be conceded.^^*^ Moreover, the story is plausible and 
there is no a priori objection to be raised against it. 

On the other hand, certain facts mihtate strongly against 
the story. First, the nickname Uncle Sam, so far from 
springing into existence at the outbreak of the war, did 
not make its appearance until the war was half over. Sec- 
ondly, the absence of any trace of the story until 1842 — or 
a generation after the event — is ominous. Thirdly, a 
remarkable feature of the obituary notices of Samuel Wilson 
w^hich were written for the Troy newspapers deserves to be 
dwelt upon. Not one of them connected Samuel Wilson 
with Uncle Sam. It is true that the Uncle Sam story is 
found in two Troy papers, but in each case it was copied 
from an Albany paper.^"^ This fact, coupled with the 



'**The Albany Directory for 1813 contained the names of Ishmael Wilaon, laborer; 
Newman Wilson, teamster; Samuel Wilson, potter; and widow Martha Wilson, 
teacher. Samuel Wilson was a constable in the Second Ward. (Munsell's Annals 
of Albany, V. 47, 97.). Mrs. Jane Wilson, wife of Samuel Wilson, globe manufac- 
turer, died May 8, 1827. (Munsell's Annals of Albany, 1856, VII, 124.) Samuel 
Wilson, of the firm of James Wilson & Son, died at Schodack on August 29, 1830. 
(Munsell's Annals of Albany, 1858, IX, 215). 

""See the obituary notice of Ebenezer Wilson, p. 55, above. 

I am indebted to Mr. Weise for courteous replies to several queries. He writes 
me: "The fact that the Wilsons received contracts for the supply of beef to the 
troops encamped at the cantonment at Greenbush, and that Samuel Wilson was 
an inspector, together with the information respecting the sites of the Wilson 
slaughtering houses in Troy, I obtained from old inhabitants of Troy intimately 
acquainted with the two brothers." Mr. Weise adds that the notes taken by him 
when preparing his various books on Troy are stored and so are inaccessible at present. 

'"•See p. 67, note 104, above. 



60 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

further fact that no book about Troy contained the story 
until 1876, seems to indicate that the popular story is not 
native to Troy."^ Fourthly, the statement that "the 
letters U. S., for United States, were then almost entirely 
new," is not only so preposterous as to be beyond behef, 
but can be proved to be untrue. As a matter of fact, the 
abbreviations U. S. or U. States, as also G. B. or G. Britain, 
were common early in the nineteenth century;^" and it 
would no more have been possible for men in 1813 to ask 
the meaning of the letters U. S. than would such an inquiry 
be possible now. Fifthly, the early evidence, while it may 
not be absolutely conclusive, not only fails to corroborate 
the Wilson story but strongly points to another conclusion; 
while the earliest known example of Uncle Sam is from a 
Troy paper, but without reference to Samuel Wilson. Sixthly, 



""See The Trojan Sketch Book, edited by Miss Abba A. Goddard (1846); Hunt's 
Merchants Magazine for June, 1846, XIV, 515-523; D. O. Kellogg's City of Troy 
(1847); Hunt's Merchants Magazine for September, 1849, XXI, 298-305; John 
Woodworth's Reminiscences of Troy (1853, second edition in 1860). Mr. Weise's 
History of the City of Troy was published in 1876., 

"'"The army of the U.S." {Salem Gazette, January 21, 1812, p. 3-2). "An ambi- 
tious president . . . might march the militia . . . out of the U. S. 
and keep the whole of the regiilar force within" {Connecticut Courant, January 
22, 1812, p. 3-4). "The Gull Traps which are now set through the U. States" 
{Columbian Centinel, February 19, 1812, p. 2-2). "Equipped at the expense of 
the U.S. " {Salem Gazette, July 31, 1812, p. 3-2). "The army of the U.S. " {Yankee, 
August 21, 1812, p. 3-2). "Which cost the U.S. five dollars to transport to Green- 
bush" (CoZuw6i;on Cen/tneZ, September 26, 1812, p. 2-2). "War . . . between 
the U.S. and G.B." {Columbian Centinel, December 19, 1812, p. 2-3). "Four 
regiments of U.S. troops" {Columbian Centinel, December 26, 1812, p. 2-3). "The 
enemies of the U. States" {New York Spectator, January 9, 1813, p. 2-5). "The 
President of the U. States" {National Intelligencer, January 12, 1813, p. 3-1). "The 
U. S. Senate" {New York Spectator, February 11, 1813, p. 1-1). "What shall we 
say of her conduct during the present war -with the U.S.?" {National Intelligencer, 
April 3, 1813, p. 3-4). "A regiment of U. S. troops" {Columbian Centinel, June 
16, 1813, p. 2-4). "The Navy of the U.S." {Yankee, July 23, 1813, p. 3-1). "U.S. 
Law" {New England Palladium, August 31, 1813, p. 1-1). "Gen. Varnum, . . . 
(whose recent votes in the U. States' Senate shew, that he is beginning to reflect)" 
{New England Palladium, September 3, 1813). All these citations, which could 
be multiplied indefinitely, are of an earlier date than the first appearance of Uncle 
Sam. A few instances previous to 1812 may be given. "Major Rice of Hingham, 
we are informed, is appointed a Colonel in the U.S. army" {Columbian Centinel, 
October 27 1798, p. 2-4). "The President of the U. States" {Columbian Centinel, 
March 20, 1799, p. 2-2). "Christopher Gore, Esq. Commissioner of the U. S. at 
the Court of London" {Columbian Centinel, March 20, 1799, p. 2-4). "The Presi- 
dent of the U.S." {Columbian Centinel, March 14, 1807, p. 2-3). But while, as thus 
seen, the initials U. S. were perfectly familiar to Americans in 1812 and 1813, yet 
no doubt the war with England made them still more common. Attention may 
also be called to the example of "U.Sam" quoted on p. 37, above. 



1908.] UTicle Sam. 61 

the apparent fact that the nickname was at first used some- 
what derisively does not tend to confirm the popular yarn. 
Finally, in connection with the Wilson story, we must 
consider a stanza in a song said to have been sung about 
1789. Much has been written about 'Hhe original Yankee 
Doodle song." The song thus generally spoken of begins 
with the line " Father and I went down to camp. " In Act I, 
Scene III, of Andrew Barton's "The Disappointment: 
Or, The Force of Credulity : A New American Comic 
Opera," printed in 1767, the air of Yankee Doodle made its 
first known appearance under that name.^^'^ When the 
British troops arrived at Boston in 1768 it was stated, 
under date of September 29 of that year, that "the Yarikey 
Doodle Song was the Capital Piece in their Band of Music; "^^^ 
and, much to the annoyance of the good people of Boston, 
the British persisted in playing the air at intervals for 
another seven years. As the "Father and I" song was 
written not earlier than 1775, obviously it could not have 
been "the original" Yankee Doodle song. *tn 1824, J. 
Farmer and J. B. Moore, believing that "the burlesque 
song. . .is passing into obHvion," gave "a copy of the song 
as it was printed thirty-five years since, and as it was troll'd 
in our Yankee circles of that day. "^^* As printed by Farmer 
and Moore, the song had eleven stanzas, the tenth being 
as follows: 

" Old uncle Sam. come there to change 
Some pancakes and some onions. 

For lasses cakes, to carry home 

To give his wife and young ones." 

That this version was actually printed in 1789 rests upon 
the assertion of Farmer and Moore. This Society owns 
a copy of "The Yankey's Return from Camp" which was 



"' Page 22. A copy of the opera in the Ridgway branch of the Library Company 
of Philadelphia has written in ink on the title page, "by Col. Thomas Forrest of 
Germantown. S." Who "S. " was, I do not know. John F. Watson also stated 
that "Mr. Forrest wrote a very humorous play, (which I have seen printed)" (Annals 
of Philadelphia. 1830, p. 232). 

"'.Veto York Journal, October 13, 1768, p. 2-2. 

''* Collections, Historical and Miscellaneous; and Monthly Literary Journal, III, 
158, 169. 



62 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

probably printed in 1813."^ The Boston Public Library- 
owns a copy, entitled "The Farmer and his Son's return 
from a visit to the Camp, "^^*^ which I believe to be earlier^" 
than the version in the library of this Society. In 1857 
it was stated that "the verses commencing 'Father and I 
went down to camp,' were written by a gentleman of Con- 
necticut, a short time after Gen. Washington's last visit 
to New England. '"^^^ Now this visit was made in 1789, 
and, curiously enough, it was in that very year that RoyaU 
Tyler's play of "The Contrast" was acted; and in that play, 
published in 1790, the words made their earliest known 
appearance in print.^^^ The stanza quoted above is first 



"^ It i3 in a collection of Songs, BaUads, etc., in three volumes, presented to the 
Society by Isaiah Thomas in August, 1814, and stated by him to have been "Pur- 
chased from a Ballad Printer and Seller, in Boston, 1813. Bound up for Preser- 
vation — to shew what the articles of this kind are in vogue with the Vulgar at this 
time, 1814." In 1903 the Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale printed this version in 
his New England History in Ballads, pp. 116-120. 

*''My attention was called to this in 1901 by Mr. Worthington C. Ford, who kindly 
sent me a blue print of it. As the library officials have for years been unable to 
find the volume containing the original, my blue print is valuable. The title, and 
the fact that at the top of the broadside is a cut of a drummer and three soldiers, 
make me think that this version is older than the other. 

'" By earlier, I merely mean that it was printed earlier. The words of the two 
versions are practically identical. 

"' Historical Magazine, I, 92. 

*" The Contrast, Act III, Scene i, p. 45. For purposes of comparison, I give the 
first stanza. Tyler has it: 

"Father and I went up to camp. 
Along with Captain Goodwin; 
And there we saw the men and boys. 
As thick as hasty-pudding." 

The version owned by this Society reads: 

"Father and I went down to camp. 

Along with Captain Gooding, 
And there we see the men and boys, 
As thick as hast jTJudding. " 

The Farmer and Moore version is as follows: 

"Father and I went down to camp. 

Along with Captain Goodwin, 
Where we see the men and boys 
As thick as Ha.sty-piiddin. " 

It is of course possible that my blue print is earlier than 1789, but its date is purely 
conjectural. 

Dr. Hale writes: "An autograph note of Judge Dawes, of the Harvard class of 1777, 
addressed to my father, says that the author of the well-known lines was Edward 
Bangs, who graduated with him." It is curious that some (but not all) of the 
lines should have first been printed in a play written by a member of the Harvard 
class of 1776. 



1908.] Uncle Sam. 63 

found in the version of 1824 and is not in either of the three 
versions certainly printed in or before 1813. Hence we 
cannot, without better evidence, accept the Farmer and 
Moore stanza as antedating 1824. Yet it is perfectly 
possible that the stanza was written before the war of 
1812,^^'' and if it was, the fact would seem to be all but fatal 
to the Wilson story. 

The third explanation of the origin of Uncle Sam is that 
the sobriquet was merely a jocular extension of the letters 
U. S. This explanation, like the Wilson story, rests purely 
on assumption. There is nothing in the least either unusual 
or remarkable in the process of abbreviating a term and 
then expanding it. In the amenities of political warfare 
in this country in 1855, it was considered the height of 
wit to dub a politician "D. D." and then expand the initials 
into something derogatory. In this way John Petitt became 
"Dirty Dog," Stephen A. Douglas became "Debauched 
Douglas," and David R. Atchison became "Drunken 
Davy."^^^ During the same period in England, we find 
the same manifestation. The London Transport Corps 
Regiment, which was formed in 1854 and 1855 for service 
in the Crimea, went by the nickname of the "London 
Thieving Company," When its name was changed in 
1857 to Military Train, it was dubbed "Murdering Thieves," 
"Muck Tumblers," "Muck Train," and "Moke Train,"— 
the third a corruption of the last, said to have been due 
to the employment of Spanish mules instead of horses. ^'^^ 

"*In a song called Brother Jonathan, doubtless written in 1798, when war with 
France was thought imminent, and printed in 1800 in The Nightingale; or Rural 
Songster (Dedham), p. 118, is found this stanza: 

"I think it's darned wrong, be sure. 

Because we us'd 'em clever; 
An' uncle vums a sailor works 

Much harder than a weaver." 

Throughout the war of 1812, song after song was written to the air of Yankee Doodle. 

'"An article headed "The D.D.'s, " which was printed in the Kansas Herald of 
Freedom o( August 25, 1855, begins as follows: "The Missouri Democrat has a very 
fine article under this head. It says the politicians have lately taken upon them- 
selves the liberty of conferring the degree of D.D. upon its voters with a most pro- 
miscuous irreverence" (p. 2-3). It states that Thomas H. Benton was responsible 
for the nicknames applied to Petitt and Douglas. 

"'Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, V, 380, 439 (May 12, June 2, 1900); Tenth 
Series, VII, 257 (March 30, 1907). 



64 American Antiquarian Society. [April, 

I can well remember how, as a boy, I used to wonder whether 
General Grant had actually been christened U. S. and 
whether those letters stood for the United States. * I have 
since learned that Grant was called not only "United States" 
Grant, but also "Uncle Sam" Grant, "Unconditional 
Surrender" Grant, and "United we Stand" Grant.^^^ 
.During the past decade the South African War has enabled 
us to observe these nicknames in the very making, A 
London newspaper of January 14, 1900, asserted that "by 
a facetious adaptation of initials as Roman numerals [C. I.V.], 
the City of London Lnperial Volunteers, now on their way 
to the front, achieve the title of the 104th, an appellation 
likely to commend itself to the regiment. "^^^ Nicknames 
have a way of disappearing rapidly, but this particular 
one seems to have stuck.^^'^ But it was by no means the 
only one in which the C. I. V. rejoiced. Those who opposed 
the war invented "Chamberlain's Innocent Victims," while 
Tommy Atkins converted the initials into "Can I Venture?" 
A more unpleasant nickname was "Covered In Vermin. "^^^ 
The Imperial Yeomanry were collectively called "Innocent 
Youths. "^'^ 

Does the history of the term Uncle Sam, now given for 
the first time, tend to support or to overthrow this explana- 
tion of the origin of the sobriquet? While the initials U. S. 
were well known in 1812 and 1813, yet no doubt the war 
made them still more common. "The letters U. S.," 
explained the Troy Post of September 7, 1813, "on the 
government waggons, &c are supposed to have given rise 



"*See W. F. G. Shanks's Personal Recollections of distinguished Generals (1866), 
p. 117. 

"* Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, quoted in Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, V. 104 
(February 10, 1900). 

"" Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, X, 503 (December 27, 1902). 

'*" Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, X, 503 (December 27, 1902). 

*" Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, X, 503 (December 27, 1902). 

By a still further exercise of humor, an article in an English journal on the London 
"Bobby" is headed "Robert Again" (Black and White, July 25, 1903, XXVI, 110); 
while the London Times converts Tommy Atkins into "Mr. Thomas Atkins." Sim- 
ilarly, Uncle Sam becomes Uncle Samuel, of which an instance dated 1816 has 
already been given. (See p. 41, above.) "Our good Uncle Samuel," -nTote General 
Randolph B. Marcy in 1872 (Bortler Reminiscences, p. 66). A letter which appeared 
in the Philadelphia Aurora of October 14, 1812, was signed "Johannes Taurus" 
(p. 1-1). 



1908.] Uncle Sam.. 65 

to it."^^^ On October 1, 1813, a writer spoke of "Uncle 
Sam, the now popular explication of the U. S."^^^ By 
implication it may be inferred that this was the view of 
Paulding in 1831,^^"'^ of Abdy in 1835,^^^ and of an unknown 
Englishman in 1838.^^"^ It was stated at the beginning 
of this paper that the history of nicknames usually follows 
one general course,— that those who, at the time of origin, 
perhaps know the real explanation do not record it, and 
that later people begin guessing. Must it not be admitted 
that Uncle Sam is an exception to the rule? that those who 
first used the sobriquet did record its origin? and that the 
explanation they gave is the true explanation? 

^^ See p. 33, above. 

*'*See p. 34, above. 

'** See p. 43, above. 

^*' See p. 44, above. 

'^' See p. 45, above. 

It need hardly be pointed out that the word "uncle" ha.s long been employed in 
this country. In a play written in 1815, David Humphreys made Doolittle, the 
Yankee hero, thus soliloquize about the Countess St. Luc, another character in the 
play: "I like her tu; though she is so tarnation strange and sad, by what I larnt 
jest now. She's quite a decent, clever woman— ladyship, I shood say; about as 
nice and tidy a crittur as ever trod shews '-leather. (Looking at the glass as he passes, 
and admiring himself) Well! my fortin's made. I woodn't give that {smpping 
his fingers) to call the President and all the Congress ' Uncle!' Why, I am as fine as 
a fiddle" (Act I, p. 39). On September 3, 1S38, Hawthorne said: "The Revolutionary 
pen-sioners come out into the sunshine to make oath that they are still above ground. 

One, whom Mr. S saluted as 'Uncle John,' went into the bar-room, walking 

pretty stoutly by the aid of a long, oaken staff" (American Note-Books, 1883, I, 
190). In 1853 Lowell wrote: "'Do you think it will rainT With the caution of a 
veteran auspex, he evaded a direct reply. 'Wahl, they du say it's a sign o' rain 
comin', said he. I discovered afterwards that my interlocutor was Uncle Zeb. 
Formerly, every New England town had its representative uncle. He was not a 
pawnbroker, but some elderly man who, for want of more defined family ties, had 
gradually assumed this avuncular relation to the community "(Moosehead Journal, 
Prose Works, 1890, I, 16). The Salem Gazette of June 13. 1815, contained a para- 
graph headed, "The Cogitations of Uncle John" (p. 3-2). It has already been 
pointed out that Timothy Pickering was nicknamed " Uncle Tim, " See p. 26, above. 



